Algorithmic Ijtihād: Leveraging AI and Islamic Legal Theory to Mediate Conflict in a Multifaith Society

Abstract

Pluralistic societies of the twenty-first century are faced with a twin challenge of protecting religious piety on the one hand and the nurturing of remote inter-communal relationship on the other. In this article, the Islamic process of independent legal reasoning called (ijtihād) is examined to determine how modern methods of artificial intelligence could enhance the process to produce artifacts of conflict mediation in context-sensing, transparent, and rapid tools that could be applied in the face of religious conflict involving different religions. Using the lessons of classical (uṣūl al- fiqh), we will begin by tracing the logic of decision making encountered historically by Muslim’s jurists as they attempted to pull into harmony the authority of the text and realities of action.  Then we implement that reasoning in machine-readable ontologies and rule-based knowledge graphs, so that AI systems can interpolate that juristic multiplicity of opinion (ikhtilāf) and show areas of ethical accord with other religions and secular law groups. Most importantly, the article deals with possible pitfalls of data-bias, codification of dynamic interpretive practices as instance-of-how-it-was-then (as opposed to how-it-will-be-in-time), and the danger of de-legitimizing human scholars. In order to curb these anxieties, we recommend a mixed governance model under which outputs provided by AI would be in the style of advisory drafts open to scholarly review and community consultation (shūrā). In the end, it appears that algorithmic (ijtihād) is not a shortcut; rather, it is a practical-ethical course to a better nation spirit of amalgamation of religious faith and global peacebuilding.