Praktik Ghibah Dalam Grup WhatsApp Keluarga Dalam Perspektif Hukum Islam

Abstract

The shift of family communication from physical spaces to digital environments has transformed not only how family members interact but also how dignity, privacy, and interpersonal conflicts are produced, communicated, and disseminated. Although family WhatsApp groups are socially perceived as private spaces, their digital architecture allows conversations concerning an individual’s shortcomings to be stored, reproduced, forwarded, and transferred into different contexts. This condition raises a fundamental question as to whether the classical legal construction of ghibah in Islamic jurisprudence can be directly applied to digital communication or requires contextual reconstruction. This study aims to analyze ghibah in family WhatsApp groups by integrating Islamic legal sources, religious legal opinions, Indonesian positive law, and developments in constitutional jurisprudence concerning digital expression. The study employs normative juridical research using conceptual, statutory, case, and maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah approaches. The findings demonstrate that the private character of a WhatsApp group does not eliminate the legal character of ghibah when the essential elements of discussing an absent person, mentioning something that the person dislikes, and communicating it to a third party are fulfilled. However, digital communication introduces additional dimensions—particularly persistence, reproducibility, audience expansion, and contextual transformation—that intensify the potential harm arising from ghibah. Based on these findings, this study proposes the Integrative Model of Digital Ghibah Based on Four Parameters (IGD-4P), consisting of information substance, communicative purpose, audience configuration, and digital persistence. The model reconceptualizes ghibah beyond a matter of communicative morality by positioning it within the broader framework of protecting human dignity, privacy, and family welfare in the digital environment.