Between Algorithm and Ijtihad: The Epistemic Limits of Artificial Intelligence in Qur’anic Scholarship
Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence, Tafsīr Epistemology, Qur’anic Interpretation, Islamic EthicsAbstract
The advancement of Artificial Intelligence in the contemporary period has profoundly reshaped numerous dimensions of human civilization, including the field of Qur’anic scholarship and exegesis. While AI improves accessibility and effectiveness in the examination of sacred texts, it simultaneously generates epistemological, theological, and ethical questions concerning interpretive authority, the legitimacy of derived meanings, and the risk of diminishing the spiritual essence of the Qur’an. This study seeks to investigate the role of Artificial Intelligence within the epistemological framework of Qur’anic exegesis and to evaluate its theological and ethical consequences within Islamic intellectual discourse. The research adopts a qualitative, library-based methodology grounded in a critical hermeneutic perspective, examined through the lens of tafsīr epistemology and maqāṣid al-sharī’ah. The results reveal that Artificial Intelligence operates as a supplementary epistemic tool with the capacity to broaden linguistic examination, intertextual analysis, and the systematic organization of tafsīr resources. Nevertheless, Artificial Intelligence is deficient in historical awareness, moral deliberation, and purposeful engagement with meaning, all of which constitute indispensable components of Islamic interpretive epistemology. Consequently, interpretive authority continues to reside within human agency, as the interpreter who synthesizes divine revelation, rational inquiry, and socio-cultural realities. The application of Artificial Intelligence in the interpretation of the Qur’an must be consonant with the principles of ḥifẓ al-dīn and ḥifẓ al-’aql in order to uphold the sanctity of religious doctrine and the intellectual integrity of Islamic scholarly tradition.
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