MAQASID AL-SHARIAH IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: RECONSTRUCTING ISLAMIC ETHICAL PRINCIPLES FOR DIGITAL MUSLIM SOCIETIES

Author: Malaysia

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) now mediates how Muslims learn, work, transact, and seek religious guidance, yet the ethical principles that govern it have been written largely outside the Islamic intellectual tradition. This conceptual paper argues that maqasid al-shariah (the higher objectives of Islamic law) can serve as a coherent ethical architecture for AI, but only if the classical objectives are reconstructed rather than merely restated. Using a qualitative design that combines document analysis with thematic synthesis, the paper examines three bodies of material: classical and contemporary maqasid scholarship, peer-reviewed work on Islamic AI ethics published between 2020 and 2026, and current governance instruments, including the UNESCO Recommendation, the European Union AI Act, and Malaysia's National Guidelines on AI Governance and Ethics. The analysis shows that existing scholarship agrees on the relevance of the maqasid but remains divided on three questions: whether maslahah should be read in utility-based or duty-based terms, whether Islamic ethics should complement or replace prevailing AI principles, and who holds interpretive authority when algorithms generate religious content. It also finds a persistent gap between normative statements and operational tools. The paper responds by re-specifying the five essential objectives (religion, life, intellect, lineage, and property) for algorithmic conditions, adding dignity and justice as cross-cutting objectives, and proposing a three-tier maqasid impact assessment that ranks AI harms and benefits as essential, complementary, or embellishing. Recommendations are offered for scholars, regulators, developers, and universities in Muslim-majority societies.