Reconstructing Islamic Epistemology for Artificial Intelligence: Integrating Reason, Revelation and Ethical Responsibility

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly transformed contemporary knowledge production by enabling computational systems to generate, organize, interpret, and disseminate information at scale. This development raises an epistemological problem because informational abundance and computational fluency do not necessarily constitute justified, truthful, or ethically responsible knowledge. This study aims to reconstruct Islamic epistemology for the AI era by examining the relationship among revelation, reason, epistemic verification, ethical evaluation, and responsible knowledge. Employing a qualitative philosophical-hermeneutic approach, the study analyzes Islamic philosophical texts and contemporary scholarship through textual analysis, conceptual reconstruction, comparative philosophical analysis, and interpretation. The analysis places Islamic epistemology in dialogue with epistemology and AI epistemology to identify conceptual resources for addressing technological instrumentalization and artificial epistemic authority. The findings demonstrate that Islamic epistemology provides a normative structure in which revelation establishes transcendent orientation, reason facilitates critical interpretation, verification evaluates epistemic reliability, and ethical evaluation determines the legitimacy and consequences of knowledge application. These dimensions are synthesized into the Islamic Epistemic Responsibility Framework (IERF), represented through the sequence Revelation, Reason, Verification, Ethical Evaluation, and Responsible Knowledge. The framework positions AI as an epistemic instrument rather than an autonomous authority and preserves human responsibility for evaluating and applying AI-mediated information. The study contributes to Islamic philosophical reconstruction by offering a normative framework for developing human-centered, ethically grounded, and epistemically responsible AI practices.