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This special webinar with the subtitle - Intelligence | Ignorance | Idolatry - was held on September 24, 2026. Following are recorded segments and key insights.
Recording of the seminar:
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how we learn, work, communicate, and make decisions. But as AI becomes increasingly embedded in our daily lives, an important question arises: Are we simply learning how to use AI, or are we also asking how AI is changing us?
This question was at the heart of How Should Muslims Think About AI? - Intelligence * Ignorance * Idolatry, a 90-minute webinar convened by IslamiCity and the Future of Life Institute.
The event attracted over 300 registrations, with more than 200 participants joining during the webinar, reflecting growing interest in understanding AI through an Islamic ethical framework.
Moderated by Dr. Munir Jiwa of Zaytuna College, the discussion featured three distinguished speakers:
Their presentations offered a compelling message: Muslims must move beyond being passive consumers of AI and become informed, ethically grounded participants in shaping its impact on humanity.
He described AI as part of a larger technoscientific worldview, one that reflects particular assumptions about intelligence, knowledge, human beings, and progress.
AI systems are not created in a philosophical vacuum. Their design reflects decisions about what intelligence means, what knowledge is valuable, and which human activities should be automated.
A particularly important distinction concerns the reliability of AI-generated information.
Generative AI produces outputs based on statistical probabilities. While these outputs can be remarkably convincing, they do not carry the certainty or authority that users may attribute to them.
This becomes especially significant when AI is consulted about religious knowledge, moral decisions, or other matters requiring careful judgment.
Dr. Yaqub also raised concerns about the increasing tendency to outsource thinking, research, writing, and decision-making to machines.
He advocated what he called "circuit breakers," deliberate limits on technology that preserve time for reflection, contemplation, and meaningful human engagement.
He pointed to Islamic practices, including prayer and contemplation, as important resources for resisting a culture of constant technological acceleration.
His own approach to AI is selective. He uses it for tasks with verifiable results, such as certain programming activities, while avoiding reliance on it for deeper intellectual work.
Key takeaway: Understand AI's capabilities and limitations, use it selectively, and preserve your ability to think independently.
She argued that modern technologies are not merely neutral instruments. They emerge from particular historical, cultural, and philosophical traditions.
Every technology, whether consciously or unconsciously, reflects assumptions about what constitutes a desirable future.
This raises a fundamental question for Muslims:
Are we evaluating technology according to Islamic values, or are we allowing technology to define what we consider progress?
Dr. Amana cautioned against reducing progress to greater efficiency, speed, convenience, or economic productivity.
Islamic ethical concepts such as maslaha (benefit and well-being) and mafsada (harm) require a more comprehensive understanding of human flourishing.
A technology may make a task easier or faster while simultaneously weakening relationships, undermining human agency, or introducing long-term social harms.
She also emphasized the importance of telos, the ultimate purpose or end toward which human activity is directed.
For Muslims, technological development should not become an end in itself. It must be evaluated against a God-centered understanding of human purpose, moral responsibility, and the well-being of society.
Rather than simply trying to catch up with technological developments, Muslim communities should contribute their own ethical perspectives to conversations about the future.
Key takeaway: Don't just ask what AI can do. Ask what values it serves, what harms it may create, and what kind of world it is helping build.
Social media platforms became deeply embedded in society before serious discussions about their ethical consequences gained widespread attention.
By the time concerns about addiction, manipulation, and social harm became prominent, the platforms were already influencing millions of lives.
He warned against repeating this pattern with artificial intelligence.
Rather than waiting for harmful consequences and then attempting to regulate or repair them, ethical considerations must be incorporated into the development of technology from the beginning.
He explained that Islamic ethics extends beyond evaluating how a technology is used. It also considers the intentions, responsibilities, and accountability of those who design and deploy it.
Drawing on Islamic teachings about intention and professional responsibility, he emphasized that developers and institutions cannot simply transfer moral responsibility to an algorithm.
He also discussed the need to weigh potential benefits against foreseeable harms, drawing parallels with medical ethics, where innovation must be balanced against patient safety and professional accountability.
This raises a question that should guide technological development:
Just because we can build something, does that mean we should?
He urged Muslims to contribute their ethical traditions to the broader global discussion, working alongside other faith communities and people committed to responsible innovation.
Key takeaway: Ethical responsibility must begin with intention and design, not only after technology has caused harm.
AI is already affecting education, employment, family life, religious knowledge, the environment, warfare, and social relationships.
The question is not simply whether Muslims should embrace or reject AI.
Rather, it is how Muslims can respond thoughtfully, guided by their intellectual and spiritual traditions.
In his closing reflections, Dr. Munir offered a practical framework:
Learn. Develop serious AI literacy. Understand how AI works, what it can accomplish, and where its limitations and risks lie.
Engage. Bring Islamic ethical perspectives into discussions about AI development, adoption, and governance, before harmful consequences become entrenched.
Lead. Encourage Muslim scholars, educators, institutions, technologists, community leaders, and ordinary individuals to help shape AI's future rather than merely reacting to decisions made by others.
An important theme throughout the discussion was that Islamic ethical insights are not relevant only to Muslims. They can contribute meaningfully to global conversations about human dignity, responsibility, justice, and the future of technology.
The challenge is to combine practical awareness with principled judgment.
INTELLIGENCE - What is AI really capable of?
We must distinguish computational capabilities from human understanding, wisdom, consciousness, and moral responsibility.
IGNORANCE - What does AI not know, and what do we not yet understand about its consequences?
AI-generated answers can be convincing without being reliable. We must recognize uncertainty and remain attentive to the social consequences of technologies whose long-term effects are not yet fully understood.
IDOLATRY - Are we giving technology authority that it should never possess?
The discussion used idolatry as a philosophical and spiritual warning against excessive dependence on powerful technologies.
When people begin treating AI as an unquestionable authority, allowing it to replace human judgment, moral responsibility, or spiritual discernment, technology risks moving beyond its proper role.
The lesson is not that using AI constitutes idolatry, but that no technology should become an object of ultimate trust or replace our responsibility before Allah.
Rather, it was an invitation to begin a deeper conversation about the relationship between technology, faith, and the future of humanity.
As Dr. Mohamed AbuTaleb reminded participants, AI's influence will not necessarily arrive as something we consciously invite into our lives. It is already becoming embedded in the systems and institutions around us.
That makes thoughtful engagement increasingly important.
In his concluding remarks, Dr. Munir Jiwa encouraged participants to continue developing AI literacy, bringing Islamic ethical perspectives into wider conversations, and taking an active role in shaping the future.
The participation of hundreds of registrants and attendees from different parts of the world demonstrated the importance of creating more opportunities for these discussions.
Our collective challenge is not merely to keep pace with AI, but to ensure that technological progress remains accountable to human dignity, moral responsibility, and the values that give our lives meaning.
Artificial intelligence is advancing at extraordinary speed-from today's generative AI to the pursuit of AGI and potentially superintelligent systems. What do these developments mean for Muslims, and how should we respond?
This webinar brings together Muslim scholars and AI experts to explore the opportunities and risks of advanced AI through both technological and Islamic ethical perspectives.
The conversation will go beyond how Muslims can use today's AI tools. It will examine deeper questions:
Date: Thursday September 24th, 2026
Moderator:
Dr. Munir Jiwa is Director of Academic Initiatives & Partnerships, and Associate Professor at Zaytuna College, and on the Religious Diversity Cluster Faculty at UC Berkeley, specializing in anthropology, religious studies, and interreligious dialogue.
Speakers:
Dr. Mohamed AbuTaleb is a Yaqeen Institute scholar, educator, and technologist whose work bridges Islamic scholarship, engineering, and contemporary issues, including the ethical implications of AI.
Dr Yaqub Chaudhary is an interdisciplinary scholar who has been working on the philosophy and metaphysics of AI and digital technologies since 2017. He is currently co-authoring a work based on original research on the Intention Economy. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge between 2023-25.
Dr. Amana Raquib is Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at IBA Karachi and author of Islamic Ethics of Technology, specializing in Islamic ethics, technology, AI, and Maqasid al-Shariah.
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