“This is Not a Hoax!â€: A Thematic Analysis Investigating a Muslim Scholar’s Advice about Covid-19 Pandemic through Digital Storytelling
In this era of globalization in which information is disseminated easy and fast, Muslim scholars who are proficient in English use digital storytelling, particularly on YouTube, to spread dakwah and advice about situational issues. Having millions of social media followers, they are regarded as very popular. However, previous studies failed to consider their advice on the pressing situational issue of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study, thus, is meant to give an analytical account of the advice given by a Muslim scholar, Mufti Menk, on the Covid-19 pandemic. The data source was his digital stories posted on YouTube about the issue. A thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) suggested that the overarching themes apparent from transcript analysis was that of ‘religious leaders giving the right advice’, ‘marrying Islamic knowledge with medical knowledge’ and ‘having conviction in Allah means taking the right precautions’. It is suggested that religious leaders whom people always look up to during times of crisis give the right advice that goes in line with medical knowledge to improve people’s calmness.