Al-Istikhlāf Framework in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Reclaiming the Human Identity and Responsibility in the Digital Era
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/alitqan.v10i2.342Keywords:
Al-Istikhlāf Framework, Human being, AI, Identity, Responsibility.Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most disruptive forces of the twenty-first century, reshaping cultures, economies, social relations, and even the definition of human intelligence, creativity, and knowledge. Beyond its technical and economic effects, AI raises profound questions about human identity, responsibility and purpose: if machines can imitate reasoning, generate knowledge, and even simulate empathy, what remains distinctive about the human being? This article aims to highlight the Qur’ānic perspective of the human being and intelligence as a response to the current discourse on AI and the human being. The Qur’ānic conception of the human being as ʿAbd [slave of Allah (ﷻ)] and Khalīfah (vicegerent on earth) provides a key to unlock the discourse on the matter at hand. The article employed library research and textual analysis. Drawing on Qur’ānic exegesis, classical Islamic scholarship, and contemporary AI ethics, it contrasted natural intelligence with machine computation and highlighted the unique moral, spiritual, and teleological dimensions of humanity that cannot be replicated by algorithms. The article then applied the al-Istikhlāf framework to assess AI’s impact on identity, psychology, social relations, labour, and spiritual life. It then outlined the normative guidance through Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah (higher objectives of the law). The article concluded that the human identity, grounded in the faculties of ʿAql (intellect), Qalb (heart), Rūḥ (soul), Nafs (self), and Fiṭrah (primordial disposition), offers a coherent ethical and ontological framework for engaging AI. The article concluded that Muslims must not remain passive consumers of technology but should actively shape responsible AI development and governance with humility, moral clarity, and divine purpose, ensuring that innovation serves human flourishing rather than eroding it.
Downloads
References
Abdel Haleem, M.A.S. (Trans.). (2004). The Qur’ān. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Abdelnour. M. Gamal. (2025). Artificial Intelligence and the Islamic Theology of Technology: From “Means” to “Meanings” and from “Minds” to “Hearts”. Religions, Vol. 16: 796. https:// doi.org/10.3390/rel16060796.
Al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, Vol. 1. Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif.
Al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. (2010). Marvels of the Heart: Book XXI of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, trans. Walter James Skellie. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae.
Al-Iṣfahānī, Al Raghib. (1992). Al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān, ed. Ṣafwān ʿAdnān al-Dāwūdī. Damascus/Beirut: Dār al-Qalam/al-Dār al-Shāmiyyah.
Al-Iṣfahānī, Al-Rāghib. (1992). Mufradāt Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān, ed. Ṣafwān ʿAdnān Dāwūdī. Damascus: Dār al-Qalam.
Al-Māturīdī, Abū Manṣūr. (1970). Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, ed. Fathalla Kholeif. Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq.
Al-Qushayrī, Abū al-Qāsim. (1996). Al-Risālah al-Qushayriyyah fī ʿIlm al-Taṣawwuf, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd and Maḥmūd ibn al-Sharīf. Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif.
Benwell, Bethan, and Stokoe. Elizabeth. (2006). Commodified Identities. In Discourse and Identity, 165-203. Edinburgh University Press.
Bostrom, Nick. (2014). Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Buolamwini, Joy and Timnit, Gebru. (2018). Gender Shades. Intersectional Accuracy Disparities in Commercial Gender Classification. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 81, pp. 77-91.
Celik, Yusuf. (2023). Answering Divine Love: Human Distinctiveness in the Light of Islam and Artificial Super Intelligence. Sophia, 62, pp. 679-96
Chaudhary, Yaqub. (2021). Artificial Intelligence and the Metaphysics of the Human: An Islamic Response. The Muslim World, Vol. 111, No. 4..
Cole, M. (2022). What’s Wrong with Technocracy? The Boston Review. August 20. www.bostonreview.net
Descartes, René. (1988). Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, trans. Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Elmahjub, Ezieddin. (2023). Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Islamic Ethics: Towards Pluralist Ethical Benchmarking for AI. Philosophy & Technology, Vol. 36, p. 37, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-023-00668-x.
Farhangi, M.A., Fathi Azar, E., Manzouri, A. et al. (2023). Prolonged screen watching behaviour is associated with high blood pressure among children and adolescents: a systematic review and dose- response meta-analysis. J Health Popul Nutr, Vol. 42, p. 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41043-023-00437-8
Gonçalves, B. (2023). The Turing Test is a Thought Experiment. Minds & Machines, Vol. 33, pp. 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-022-09616-8
Harvey, Ramon. (2021). Transcendent God, Rational World: A Māturīdī Theology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hume, David. (2000). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Miftāḥ Dār al-Saʿādah wa Manshūr Wilāyat al-ʿIlm wa al-Irādah (Mecca: ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid; various printings), vol. 1.
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. (1955). Ighāthat al-Lahfān min Maṣāʾid al-Shayṭān, ed. Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiqqī, 2 vols. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Sunnah al-Muḥammadiyyah.
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. (n.d.). Madarij al-Salikin bayna Manazil Iyyaka Naʿbudu wa-Iyyaka Nastaʿin. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah.
Ibn Khaldūn. (2015). The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. 3 Vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ibn Taymiyya,Taqī al-Dīn. (1979-1991). Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa al-Naql, ed. Muḥammad Rashād Sālim. Riyadh: Jāmiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad b. Saʿūd al-Islāmiyyah.
Ibn Taymiyya. (1979). Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-al-Naql, ed. Muḥammad Rashād Sālim, 11 vols. Riyadh: Jāmiʿat al-Imām.
Ismail, Hidayah Wan, and Berghout. AbdelAziz. (2024). The concept of al-istikhlaf and its importance in reclaiming the attributes of man as Khalīfah on Earth. Al-Shajarah: Journal of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC).
Izutsu, Toshihiko. (2002) Ethico-Religious Concepts in The Qur’an. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. (1997). Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Larson, Abigail. (2024). What Makes social media so Addictive, and How Does it Affect our Mental Health?. Psychology Student Publications. https://commons.und.edu/psych-stu/63
Locke, John. (1975). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Peter H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Malik, Shoaib Ahmed. (2024). Artificial Intelligence and Islamic Thought: Two Distinctive Challenges. Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, Vol. 8.
McCarthy, John, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude E. Shannon. (2006). A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. August 31, 1955. Reprinted in AI Magazine.
Mhd Sarif, Suhaimi and Yusof Ismail. (2019). The Intertwined Relationship Between the Nafs (Carnal Soul), Aql (Reasoning), and Qalb (Heart). Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture, Vol. 7, No. 1, p. 4554.
Pasquale. Frank. (2021). Humans Judged by Machines: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. In Robotics, AI and Humanity. Edited by Joachimvon Braun, Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Gregor M Reichberg and Mary S. Archer. Cham: Springer.
Pavlin, James David. (1998). The concept of' Ubudiyyah in the theology of Ibn Taymiyyah: The relationship between faith, love and actions in the perfection of worship. New York University.
Pranathi, J.S.R. Jacob, A.M. (2025). Impact of Short Form Videos on Attention Span Mediated by Sleep Quality and Stress. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Approaches in Psychology (IJIAP), Vol. 3, Issue 4 (April).
Raquib, Arshad. Channa, Bushra; Tazeen Zubair, and Junaid Qadir. (2022). Islamic Virtue-Based Ethics for Artificial Intelligence. Discover Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-022-00033-1.
Risko, Evan, and Sam Gilbert. (2016). Cognitive Offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 20, No. 9, pp. 676-688.
Robinson, Francis. (1993). Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the Impact of Print. Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 229-251. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X00016127.
Shavarani, Masoud. (2024). The Position of Humanity in Islamic Environmental Theology: Caliph or Servant. Islam and the Contemporary World, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 73-99.
Stearns, Peter N. (2009). Consumerism. Handbook of economics and ethics.
Turkle, Sherry. (2011). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other. New York Basic Books.
Twenge, Jean M. Gabrielle N. Martin, and W. Keith Campbell. (2018). Decreases in Psychological Well-Being Among American Adolescents After 2012 and Links to Screen Time During the Rise of Smartphone Technology. Emotion, Vol. 18, No. 6.
Uddin, F. (2024). Ruh, Nafs, Aql and Qalb and Spiritual Intelligence. International Journal of Islamic Psychology, Vol. 5, No. 2.
Voltaire. (1980). Philosophical Letters, trans. Leonard Tancock. London: Penguin Books.
World Economic Forum. (2020). The Future of Jobs Report 2020. Geneva: WEF.
Zuboff, Shoshana. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: PublicAffairs.
