Artificial Intelligence, Islamic Ethics, and Algorithmic Accountability: A Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah Framework for Responsible AI Governance in Digital Muslim Societies
Keywords:
artificial intelligence, Islamic ethics, maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah, algorithmic accountability, digital Muslim societiesAbstract
Artificial intelligence increasingly shapes religious knowledge, education, finance, welfare, identity, and institutional decision-making in digital Muslim societies. Although global AI ethics frameworks emphasize transparency, fairness, privacy, safety, accountability, and human oversight, they often struggle to translate these principles into culturally and ethically grounded mechanisms of algorithmic accountability. This article develops a maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah-based framework for responsible AI governance by connecting Islamic ethical reasoning with contemporary debates on algorithmic accountability. Using qualitative conceptual research, the study applies normative-ethical analysis and critical documentary analysis to global AI governance documents, maqāṣid literature, and scholarship on AI ethics, digital religion, and algorithmic accountability. The findings show that AI governance has shifted from abstract ethical principles toward institutional accountability, auditability, risk governance, lifecycle responsibility, and redress. The study argues that digital Muslim societies require AI governance that protects users as data subjects, moral agents, knowledge seekers, and participants in Islamic public life. The proposed framework translates the protection of religion, life, intellect, dignity, lineage, and property into criteria for religious integrity, harm prevention, epistemic autonomy, identity protection, economic justice, human oversight, and remedy. This article contributes to Islamic ethics, AI governance, digital religion, and Islamicate Futures by offering an operational model of maqāṣid-based algorithmic accountability.
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