Hubbuddunya in the Digital Era: TGKH. Zainuddin Abdul Madjid’s Critique of Flexing Culture

Abstract

Flexing, the open display of wealth, achievement, and status on social media, has become commonplace among urban Indonesian Muslims, yet it is mostly read through Western consumption theory. This study examines how TGKH. Muhammad Zainuddin Abdul Madjid (Hamzanwadi), founder of Nahdlatul Wathan, anticipated this phenomenon in Wasiat Renungan Masa (1981). It employs qualitative library research using content analysis and contextual-interpretive reading, triangulated with Qur’anic verses, hadith, and recent national and international scholarship on flexing. The findings show that hubbuddunya, an excessive love of worldly life, works as an integrative concept binding four critiques: the reduction of human worth to wealth, title, and lineage; the pursuit of status and recognition; the inner diseases of ujub, takabbur, riya’, and hasad; and the dependence on material gain that loosens moral commitment, countered by the principle that love cannot be bought. The study also distinguishes tahdits bin ni’mah, the sanctioned voicing of gratitude, from riya’. These findings form a two-path conceptual model leading from a neutral relationship with worldly blessings toward either moral-spiritual crisis or sincere digital ethics. The study recommends that Islamic educational institutions use this framework as a reflective guide for digital literacy, while remaining cautious about anachronism.