While teenagers would mostly share their dancing skills and funny acts, with various genres as background music for entertainment purposes, the app is proving to be an excellent platform for independent preachers to spread religious content in an interesting way, attracting high viewership numbers to the extent of being featured on the TikTok For Your Page (FYP).
A 45-year-old preacher, Ahmad Dusuki Abdul Rani, for one, now has 743,000 followers on TikTok, which he uses optimally to reach out to young Muslims.
“I find many Muslims, especially teenagers, love using TikTok, so I try to use the platform to reach out to them to spread the dakwah of Islam and remind them of what they already know.
“When there are continuous reminders, it is hoped that they will not be carried away with worldly pleasures and entertainment in this modern era, but instead focus on living their lives in a way that will benefit them in this world and the hereafter,” he told Bernama recently.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic had somehow restricted face-to-face communication and religious events, and preachers need to be smart in using available medium and technology for knowledge transfer.
Sharing a similar sentiment is a 29-year-old preacher, Ahmad Adnin Roslan, who said he had received positive feedback from TikTok users for sharing his videos answering questions on various religious issues in an easily comprehensible way, which are also widely circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp.
Ahmad Adnin, who has one million followers on TikTok with 29.5 million likes, said he found it easy to use a prudent preaching approach to convey heavy topics in a light and easy manner.
“Most people, especially Gen Z, do not like to listen to long lectures. They just want to know whether they can do it or not. So, I answer the questions posed to me briefly but concisely.
“Sometimes, just to fulfil their requests, I also preach through singing,” said Ahmad Adnin, who is also the founder of Tarbiah Sentap, a production, recording, book publishing and consultancy company.
Meanwhile, Imam Muda Asyraf, whose real name is Muhammad Asyraf Mohd Ridzuan, and who has over 64,000 followers on TikTok, said preaching should be in line with current technological developments.
“There’s nothing wrong with using TikTok and Instagram to preach. They are not just for entertainment purposes, they can also be used to share useful information and knowledge to the society,” he said.