ai & ijtihad
what role does ai play in answering questions that tradition values on the basis of virtuous struggle?
accepted to the middle east studies association annual meeting, november 2026.
abstract
this paper examines the epistemic and ethical tensions that arise when artificial intelligence systems assume authoritative roles in islamic religious guidance. drawing on talal asad’s concept of islam as a “discursive tradition” and on scholarship in the anthropology of secularism, it argues that the ai-as-oracle represents a form of secular rationality fundamentally at odds with the virtue-oriented epistemology of islamic knowledge traditions.
the islamic concepts of ijtihad (juristic striving), niyyah (intention), and tazkiyah (spiritual refinement) hold that the process of seeking truth is as morally significant as the truth itself — a framework validated by the prophetic teaching that a judge who strives earnestly receives divine reward regardless of whether the outcome is correct.
through examination of digital fatwas, qibla-determining applications, and ethnographic observation in arabic nlp laboratories in the gulf, the paper shows how ai tends toward epistemic closure: it provides definitive-seeming answers that foreclose the open-ended inquiry, fallibility, and moral accountability central to the tradition. while ai may serve legitimately as an instrument under human scholarly oversight, its elevation to autonomous authority risks reshaping the moral structure of religious life by eliminating the intentionality and human cultivation intrinsic to islamic knowledge-seeking.
it concludes by calling for conscious design choices that keep ai in a subordinate, advisory role, and for a renewed articulation of islamic epistemology capable of guiding the integration of these technologies without sacrificing the tradition’s emphasis on virtuous striving.