  While social media offer users a platform for self-expression, identity
exploration, and community management, among other functions, they also offer
space for religious practice and expression. In this paper, we explore social
media spaces as they subtend new forms of religious experiences and rituals. We
present a mixed-method study to understand the practice of sharing Quran verses
on Arabic Twitter in their cultural context by combining a quantitative
analysis of the most shared Quran verses, the topics covered by these verses,
and the modalities of sharing, with a qualitative study of users' goals. This
analysis of a set of 2.6 million tweets containing Quran verses demonstrates
that online religious expression in the form of sharing Quran verses both
extends offline religious life and supports new forms of religious expression
including goals such as doing good deeds, giving charity, holding memorials,
and showing solidarity. By analysing the responses on a survey, we found that
our Arab Muslim respondents conceptualize social media platforms as
everlasting, at least beyond their lifetimes, where they consider them to be
effective for certain religious practices, such as reciting Quran, supplication
(dua), and ceaseless charity. Our quantitative analysis of the most shared
verses of the Quran underlines this commitment to religious expression as an
act of worship, highlighting topics such as the hereafter, God's mercy, and
sharia law. We note that verses on topics such as jihad are shared much less
often, contradicting some media representation of Muslim social media use and
practice.
