Hāfizūn and Yaktumūn: Ethical Foundations for the Preservation of and Access to Cultural Heritage in GLAM Institutions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29240/alquds.v10i1.15728Keywords:
GLAM Ethics, Preservation vs Access, Islamic Information Ethics, Qur’anic Hermeneutics, Open GLAMAbstract
GLAM institutions (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) face an ethical tension between preserving cultural heritage and providing public access to it. Strict preservation practices may produce restrictive access regimes, while uncontrolled access risks damaging collections. This study aims to formulate an ethical framework to address this tension, constructed from QS. Al-Hijr [15]:9 and QS. Al-Baqarah [2]:159 through interpretation. Using Qualitative library research and thematic interpretation, this article analyzes two key concepts: the custodial mission (Hāfizūn) in QS. Al-Hijr: 9 and the prohibition of concealing knowledge (Yaktumūn) in QS. Al-Baqarah: 159. The analysis shows that QS. Al-Hijr [15]:9 legitimizes preservation ethics, while QS. Al-Baqarah [2]:159 grounds ana ethnics accessibility. The synthesis yields an ethical model that integrates authenticity, integrity, equity, transparency, and controlled access as its core elements. The study offers theological-ethical guidance for GLAM policy and enriches Islamic information ethics, complementing existing secular approaches (Floridi’s information ethics, IFLA/ICA/UNESCO codes) with a theologically grounded perspective relevant to Muslim-majority contexts and to global discourse alike.
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References
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Camara, Abdoulaye. “International Council of Museums (ICOM): Code of Ethics.” In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Claire Smith. Springer International Publishing, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_1049.
Carroll, Stephanie Russo, Ibrahim Garba, Oscar L. Figueroa-Rodríguez, et al. “The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance.” Data Science Journal 19 (November 2020): 43. https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-043.
Cellard, Eleonore. “The Ṣanʿaʾ Palimpsest: Materializing the Codices.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 80, no. 1 (2021): 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1086/713473.
Day, Alison. “‘Evidence of Me’ Becoming ‘Evidence of Us’: A Case Study of the Policy, Processes and Responses of Selected GLAM Institutions to Personal Donations of Collections and Artifacts.” Open Access Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.17152127.
Deroche, Francois. Qur’ans of the Umayyads: A First Overview. Leiden Studies in Islam and Society, volume 1. Brill, 2014.
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Mahdi, Fahrizal. “THE UNCODIFIED HADITH (Study on the Hadith Narration by ‘Abdullah Ibn Amru Ibn al-ʻAs).” Jurnal Ushuluddin 26, no. 2 (2018): 130–41.
Mathiesen, Kay. “Informational Justice: A Conceptual Framework for Social Justice in Library and Information Services.” Library Trends 64, no. 2 (2015): 198–225. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2015.0044.
Merete Sanderhoff, Michael Peter Edson, Jill Cousins, and Martin von Haller Grønbæk. Sharing Is Caring: Openness and Sharing in the Cultural Heritage Sector. Statens Museum for Kunst, 2014.
Mukhlis, and Nurdin Laugu. “Digital Convergence and Memory Information Systems in Developing the Performance of Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM).” In Aspects of Digital Libraries - Digitization, Standards, Open Access, Repositories and User’s Skills, edited by Liat Klain Gabbay. IntechOpen, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1002054.
Nurul Hakim. “Hoaxes on Social Media in the Perspective of Hadith.” International Journal of Islamic Studies Issues 1, no. 2 (2025): 41–46. https://doi.org/10.59966/y4rbay28.
Onifade, Abdurrahman Bello, Kazeem Abiodun Akinwande, and Habib Shehu. “Information Ethics: Islamic Perspectives on Privacy and Hacking.” Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management 9, no. 1 (2019): 29. https://doi.org/10.5958/2277-7946.2019.00004.4.
Parhan, Muhamad, Jenuri Jenuri, and Mohammad Rindu Fajar Islamy. “Media Sosial Dan Fenomena Hoax: Tinjauan Islam Dalam Etika Bekomunikas.” Communicatus: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi 5, no. 1 (2021): 59–80. https://doi.org/10.15575/cjik.v5i1.12887.
Parry, Ross, ed. Museums in a Digital Age. 0 ed. Routledge, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203716083.
Peter S. Menell. Knowledge Accessibility and Preservation Policy for the Digital Age. 4th ed. Vol. 44. 2007. https://law.uh.edu/ipil/symposium/prior/final/Menell.pdf.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. “On the Qurʾanic Accusation of Scriptural Falsification (Tahrif) and Christian Anti-Jewish Polemic.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 130, no. 2 (2010): 189–202.
Richmond, Alison, Alison Bracker, and Victoria and Albert Museum, eds. Conservation: Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths. First issued in paperback. Routledge, 2020.
Saima Qutab, Michael David Myers, and Lesley Gardner. Information Disorder in the Glam Sector: The Challenges of Crowd Sourced Contributions. European Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, 2019. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2019_rip/37.
Shenton, Helen. “Preservation Strategies in the Digital Age.” Journal of Documentation 70, no. 3 (n.d.): 468–92.
Sinai, Nicolai. The Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Introduction. The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys NEIS. Edinburgh University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748695782.
UNESCO. “Recommendation Concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, Their Diversity and Their Role in Society.” UNESCO, November 17, 2015. https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/recommendation-concerning-protection-and-promotion-museums-and-collections-their-diversity-and-their.
Van Putten, Marijn. “‘The Grace of God’ as Evidence for a Written Uthmanic Archetype: The Importance of Shared Orthographic Idiosyncrasies.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 82, no. 2 (2019): 271–88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X19000338.
Afzaal, Ahmed. “Qur’an and Human Evolution.” The Quranic Horizons 1, no. 3 (1996): 29–71.
Azami, Muhammad Mustafa. The History of the Quranic Text: From Revelation to Compilation : A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments. Al-Qalam Pub., 2011.
Akbar, Ali, and Abdullah Saeed. Contemporary Approaches to the Qurʾan and Its Interpretation in Iran. 1st ed. Routledge, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367272067.
Albayrak, Ismail. “Revisiting the Meaning of the Divine Preservation of the Qur’an: With Special References to Verse 15:9.” Religions 13, no. 11 (2022): 1064. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111064.
Andrea Wallace and Ronan Deazley. Display At Your Own Risk. 2016. https://displayatyourownrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Display-At-Your-Own-Risk-Publication.pdf.
Azami, Muhammad Mustafa al-. The History of the Qur’anic Text: From Revelation to Compilation ; a Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments. 1. publ. UK Islamic Academy, 2003.
Borgman, Christine L. Big Data, Little Data, No Data. The MIT Press, 2015. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt17kk8n8.
Camara, Abdoulaye. “International Council of Museums (ICOM): Code of Ethics.” In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Claire Smith. Springer International Publishing, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_1049.
Carroll, Stephanie Russo, Ibrahim Garba, Oscar L. Figueroa-Rodríguez, et al. “The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance.” Data Science Journal 19 (November 2020): 43. https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-043.
Cellard, Eleonore. “The Ṣanʿaʾ Palimpsest: Materializing the Codices.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 80, no. 1 (2021): 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1086/713473.
Day, Alison. “‘Evidence of Me’ Becoming ‘Evidence of Us’: A Case Study of the Policy, Processes and Responses of Selected GLAM Institutions to Personal Donations of Collections and Artifacts.” Open Access Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.17152127.
Deroche, Francois. Qur’ans of the Umayyads: A First Overview. Leiden Studies in Islam and Society, volume 1. Brill, 2014.
Europeana Foundation. “Impact Report 2023: Open Access to Cultural Heritage in Europe.” The Hague; Europeana, 2023. https://pro.europeana.eu/files/Europeana_Professional/Europeana_Network/Association_Updates/General_Assembly_Meeting_2023/Europeana-Network-Association-Annual-report-2023.pdf.
Floridi, Luciano. The Ethics of Information. First edition. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Floridi, Luciano. The Fourth Revolution How the Infosphere Is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford university press, 2014.
Gacek, Adam. Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Handbook of Oriental Studies 98. Brill, 2009.
Georgia Evan. “Exploring the Global Picture of Open GLAM.” Europeana Foundation, 2020. https://www.dataspace-culturalheritage.eu/en/news/exploring-the-global-picture-of-open-glam.
Hussein Halaseh, Rami. “Shady Hekmat Nasser, The Second Canonization of the Qurʾān (324/936): Ibn Mujahid and the Founding of the Seven Readings.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 24, no. 1 (2022): 125–29. https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2022.0494.
IFLA. “IFLA Code of Ethics for Librarians and Other Information Workers.” The Hague, August 2012. https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/assets/faife/publications/IFLA%20Code%20of%20Ethics%20-%20Long_0.pdf.
International Council of Archives. “Code Of Ethics.” PAris, 1996. https://www.ica.org/app/uploads/2023/12/ICA_1996-09-06_code-of-ethics_EN.pdf.
Jordan, Lothar. “Terminology and Criteria of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme: New Findings and Proposals for Research.” In The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, edited by Ray Edmondson, Lothar Jordan, and Anca Claudia Prodan. Springer International Publishing, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18441-4_20.
Karimi-Nia, Morteza. “A New Document in the Early History of the Qurʾan: Codex Mashhad, an ʿUthmanic Text of the Qurʾan in Ibn Masʿud’s Arrangement of Suras.” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 10, no. 3 (2019): 292–326. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878464X-01003002.
Kaufman, Peter. Towards a New Audiovisual Think Tank for Audiovisual Archivists and Cultural Heritage Professionals. Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, 2018. https://doi.org/10.18146/2018thinktank01.
“Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development.” IFLA. IFLA, August 18, 2014. https://repository.ifla.org/handle/20.500.14598/3498.
Mahdi, Fahrizal. “THE UNCODIFIED HADITH (Study on the Hadith Narration by ‘Abdullah Ibn Amru Ibn al-ʻAs).” Jurnal Ushuluddin 26, no. 2 (2018): 130–41.
Mathiesen, Kay. “Informational Justice: A Conceptual Framework for Social Justice in Library and Information Services.” Library Trends 64, no. 2 (2015): 198–225. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2015.0044.
Merete Sanderhoff, Michael Peter Edson, Jill Cousins, and Martin von Haller Grønbæk. Sharing Is Caring: Openness and Sharing in the Cultural Heritage Sector. Statens Museum for Kunst, 2014.
Mukhlis, and Nurdin Laugu. “Digital Convergence and Memory Information Systems in Developing the Performance of Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM).” In Aspects of Digital Libraries - Digitization, Standards, Open Access, Repositories and User’s Skills, edited by Liat Klain Gabbay. IntechOpen, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1002054.
Nurul Hakim. “Hoaxes on Social Media in the Perspective of Hadith.” International Journal of Islamic Studies Issues 1, no. 2 (2025): 41–46. https://doi.org/10.59966/y4rbay28.
Onifade, Abdurrahman Bello, Kazeem Abiodun Akinwande, and Habib Shehu. “Information Ethics: Islamic Perspectives on Privacy and Hacking.” Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management 9, no. 1 (2019): 29. https://doi.org/10.5958/2277-7946.2019.00004.4.
Parhan, Muhamad, Jenuri Jenuri, and Mohammad Rindu Fajar Islamy. “Media Sosial Dan Fenomena Hoax: Tinjauan Islam Dalam Etika Bekomunikas.” Communicatus: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi 5, no. 1 (2021): 59–80. https://doi.org/10.15575/cjik.v5i1.12887.
Parry, Ross, ed. Museums in a Digital Age. 0 ed. Routledge, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203716083.
Peter S. Menell. Knowledge Accessibility and Preservation Policy for the Digital Age. 4th ed. Vol. 44. 2007. https://law.uh.edu/ipil/symposium/prior/final/Menell.pdf.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. “On the Qurʾanic Accusation of Scriptural Falsification (Tahrif) and Christian Anti-Jewish Polemic.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 130, no. 2 (2010): 189–202.
Richmond, Alison, Alison Bracker, and Victoria and Albert Museum, eds. Conservation: Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths. First issued in paperback. Routledge, 2020.
Saima Qutab, Michael David Myers, and Lesley Gardner. Information Disorder in the Glam Sector: The Challenges of Crowd Sourced Contributions. European Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, 2019. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2019_rip/37.
Shenton, Helen. “Preservation Strategies in the Digital Age.” Journal of Documentation 70, no. 3 (n.d.): 468–92.
Sinai, Nicolai. The Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Introduction. The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys NEIS. Edinburgh University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748695782.
UNESCO. “Recommendation Concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, Their Diversity and Their Role in Society.” UNESCO, November 17, 2015. https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/recommendation-concerning-protection-and-promotion-museums-and-collections-their-diversity-and-their.
Van Putten, Marijn. “‘The Grace of God’ as Evidence for a Written Uthmanic Archetype: The Importance of Shared Orthographic Idiosyncrasies.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 82, no. 2 (2019): 271–88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X19000338.
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2026-04-30
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Amelia, V., & Mustaqim, A. (2026). Hāfizūn and Yaktumūn: Ethical Foundations for the Preservation of and Access to Cultural Heritage in GLAM Institutions. AL QUDS : Jurnal Studi Alquran Dan Hadis, 10(1), 145–156. https://doi.org/10.29240/alquds.v10i1.15728
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