From Means to Meanings, From Minds to Hearts: Artificial Intelligence and the Reconstruction of Islamic Theology of Technology

This paper offers a theological and philosophical reassessment of artificial intelligence (AI) from within the Islamic intellectual tradition, arguing that the most pressing challenges posed by AI are not merely technical or epistemological but fundamentally spiritual and existential. Moving beyond dominant discourses that focus on AI’s impact on human rationality and cognitive labour, we propose a paradigm shift from the mind to the heart (qalb), conceived in the Qur’anic worldview as the integrative centre of perception, moral discernment, intentionality (niyyah), and divine remembrance. Employing Richard Osmer’s fourfold practical theology framework (descriptive empirical, interpretative, normative, and pragmatic), the paper maps contemporary Muslim responses to AI, ranging from critical caution (institutional fatwas and metaphysical critiques) to exploratory optimism and an emerging third track that transcends binary positions. It diagnoses a deeper civilisational drift from meanings to means, wherein AI development is driven predominantly by utilitarian efficiency and economic logic rather than ethical or spiritual conviction. Drawing on indigenous Islamic legal and ethical concepts, ijtihād (independent reasoning), maṣlaḥah mursalah (unrestricted public interest), sadd al-dharāʾiʿ (blocking the means to harm), and maqāṣid al sharīʿah (higher objectives of Islamic law), the paper constructs a normative theology of technology centred on the qalb and the trusteeship ethic (amānah). It concludes that the decisive question is not whether Muslims will use AI, but how they will engage it: as passive consumers of value laden systems or as active moral agents who bring their spiritual and intellectual heritage to bear on shaping a technologically mediated future worthy of human dignity and divine purpose.

کلیدواژه ها:

Artificial intelligence ، Islamic theology ، practical theology ، trusteeship ethics ، technology literacy