Tradisi Sanad dan Transformasi Transmisi Pengetahuan Pesantren di Era Digital: Telaah Epistemologis atas Otoritas Keilmuan

Abstract

Digitalization has transformed how Islamic knowledge is acquired and transmitted within the pesantren tradition, from the shift of printed texts to digital formats to the emergence of algorithm- and AI-driven religious content. This shift raises fundamental questions about knowledge authority and validity, given that pesantren have long grounded scholarly legitimacy in sanad, a tiered validation mechanism linking a knowledge recipient to its original source through a verified chain of teachers. This study analyzes the position of sanad within the transformation of pesantren knowledge transmission. Using library research with a qualitative-interpretive approach and an epistemological perspective, the study examines classical texts on sanad and the ethics of seeking knowledge alongside recent secondary literature on pesantren digitalization and digital religious authority. The findings show that digitalization alters the media, access, actors, and patterns of pesantren knowledge transmission, while creating the potential for authorization mechanisms to shift from personal verification through sanad toward algorithmic visibility. Nevertheless, sanad can still function as a mechanism of validation and authorization in digital spaces, provided that its functions of validation, authorization, and accountability are actively enacted