AI Artificial Intelligence
Dr Mazaher Jaffer submitted this as part of the second essay competition.
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ur religion prides itself in being a holistic way of life, with multiple enigmatic situations, that would require a high degree of deduction and originality in addition to the robust foundation in Islamic knowledge, in order for one to make appropriate decisions. Even this level of intellect may well be insufficient to understand many a complexity, as we see from the prohibition of Qiyaas, which is the deduction of Islamic laws from extrapolation and logic without a strict basis of originating from a divine and infallible source.
The “human touch’, which cannot fully be replaced by other forms of intelligence according to Islam, is deemed necessary jurisprudentially still despite the availability of technological advancement. This is clearly seen as an example in regards to the crescent moon situation to mark a new Islamic month, where our moon must be seen by the human eye and the proof of the same requires fulfilment of specified criteria. The use of telescopes is not permissible.
It must be remembered, before one questions the wisdom of this apparent “resistance” toward technology, that our religion believes in so much more knowledge than what is proclaimed to be fully understood about any subject matter. This is depicted in the traditions where a thousand doors of knowledge, each opening to another thousand doors were taught to our first Holy Imam by the city of knowledge, our Holy prophet (SAW).
Considering this, it makes sense that the human touch would be unparalleled due to artificial intelligence, with all its swiftness, being subservient to the command of an imperfectly informed human mind.
Finally, toward the end of time, many events which would be unexpected and unplanned would occur such as multiple forms of destruction and injustice, as well as the spontaneous calling of true followers during the time of the reappearance of our beloved and awaited Savior. A question we must ask ourselves is this: would an artificially intelligent system be able to discern between the true calling of our Imam and the similar but false claims made around the same time by the enemies of Islam? I rest my case.
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