Short answer: AI is a tool, and in Islam a tool takes the ruling of what it is used for. Scholars start from the principle that things are allowed unless a text forbids them, so using AI to learn, write, translate, code or run a business is allowed. What is not allowed is using it to lie, deceive, cheat, make fake pictures or voices of real people, or produce religious content no one has checked. And a chatbot is not a mufti: do not take a fatwa or a hadith from one without checking it with a scholar or a trusted source.
The starting point: a tool is judged by its use
The Quran tells us that Allah "created for you all of that which is on the earth" (2:29). From verses like this, most jurists, the Hanafis among them, took the rule that useful things are permitted by default (al-asl fi al-ashya al-ibahah) until a text forbids them. A second rule completes the first: means take the ruling of their ends. A knife used to cook is good, and the same knife used to harm is sinful. AI is the same.
Knowledge itself is a gift from Allah, and the Quran praises the pen, the first tool of learning:
ٱلَّذِى عَلَّمَ بِٱلْقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ
Al lazee 'allama bil qalam · 'Al lamal insaana ma lam y'alam
"Who taught by the pen - Taught man that which he knew not."
Quran 96:4-5 · translation by Sahih International
Scholars and fatwa councils have only begun to write about AI in detail, so what follows applies the settled principles. It is not a final word on every new use.
What is clearly allowed
- Learning: explaining a topic, testing yourself, practising a language, including Arabic.
- Work: writing drafts, summarising, coding, analysing data, customer service, design of things that are not living beings.
- Accessibility: reading text aloud, captions, translation for people who need them.
- Medicine and research, which scholars count among the most praised uses of knowledge.
- Working in the AI industry, as long as what you build is not itself for something haram.
What is clearly not allowed
Lying and deception. Fake reviews, fake screenshots, fake news, fake evidence. A lie told with a machine is still a lie. The Quran's rule for news fits the age of AI well:
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِن جَآءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌۢ بِنَبَإٍۢ فَتَبَيَّنُوٓا۟ أَن تُصِيبُوا۟ قَوْمًۢا بِجَهَٰلَةٍۢ فَتُصْبِحُوا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَٰدِمِينَ
Yaaa ayyuhal lazeena aamanoo in jaaa'akum faasqum binaba in fatabaiyanooo an tuseeboo qawmam bijahalatin fatusbihoo 'alaa maa fa'altum naadimeen
"O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful."
Quran 49:6 · translation by Sahih International
Deepfakes of real people. Making a picture, video or voice of a real person saying or doing what they never did is lying about them. If it shames them, it adds backbiting and slander, which the Quran compares to eating your dead brother's flesh (49:12).
Cheating. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Whoever cheats us is not one of us."1 Handing in AI work as your own where the rules forbid it, at school or at work, is cheating. Where the rules allow it, say that you used it.
Claiming credit you did not earn. The Quran warns those who "like to be praised for what they did not do" (3:188).
Spying and privacy. Using AI to track people, read their messages or expose their private lives breaks the command "do not spy" (49:12).
Religious questions and AI
This is where the most care is needed. AI tools often produce hadith that do not exist, wrong references, wrong Arabic, and confident rulings that no scholar holds. The Prophet ﷺ gave one of the strongest warnings in the Sunnah about this:
وَمَنْ كَذَبَ عَلَىَّ مُتَعَمِّدًا فَلْيَتَبَوَّأْ مَقْعَدَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ
Wa man kadhaba ʿalayya mutaʿammidan fal-yatabawwa' maqʿadahū minan-nār
And whoever lies about me deliberately, let him take his seat in the Fire.
Sahih al-Bukhari 110, from Abu Hurayrah; also in the introduction of Sahih Muslim
Sharing a "hadith" from a chatbot without checking it puts you close to that warning. The Quran also says: "do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge" (17:36). So:
- Use AI to find, not to decide. It can point you to a topic. Check every verse against a mushaf or a trusted Quran site, and every hadith in the collection it names.
- A fatwa needs a mufti. A ruling depends on your situation, your school and the details. A qualified scholar asks questions back; a chatbot fills the gaps with guesses.
- Quran recitation and tajweed need a teacher who listens to you. Apps can help you practise, but they do not replace one.
AI pictures, voices and art
Making pictures of living beings is a known question of fiqh. The Prophet ﷺ said that the image-makers will be among the most severely punished on the Day of Judgement.2 Scholars agree this covers drawing and sculpting people and animals, and they differ over photography and screens.
Making pictures of people and animals by hand is not allowed. Contemporary Hanafi scholars differ over photographs and digital images: many in South Asia treat them as pictures, while others treat a screen image as a reflection, not a picture. An AI image of a person or animal is generated, not captured, so many scholars treat it like a drawing and advise avoiding it. Images of landscapes, buildings, plants, objects and calligraphy are allowed.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i and Hanbali
- Close to the Hanafi view on drawing living beings. Many contemporary scholars of these schools allow photographs for need and for permitted uses.
- Maliki
- Many Maliki scholars held that only full statues of living beings are forbidden, and that flat pictures are disliked rather than forbidden.
A cloned voice of a real person, used without their permission or to make them say something false, is not allowed for the same reasons as deepfakes. AI-generated Quran recitations in the voice of a real qari raise both problems and should be avoided.
Can AI have a soul?
No. In Islam the soul (ruh) is from Allah alone:
وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلرُّوحِ ۖ قُلِ ٱلرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّى وَمَآ أُوتِيتُم مِّنَ ٱلْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا
Wa yas'aloonaka 'anirrooh; qulir roohu min amri rabbee wa maaa ooteetum minal 'ilmi illaa qaleelaa
"And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the soul. Say, "The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little.""
Quran 17:85 · translation by Sahih International
An AI system predicts words and patterns from data. It does not believe, worship, intend or answer to Allah, and it will not be judged. The Quran challenges people that those they call upon besides Allah "will never create [as much as] a fly" (22:73). Whatever AI does, it does with what Allah created and by the people He allowed to build it.
FAQ
Is using ChatGPT haram?
No. Using AI chat tools is allowed for permitted purposes such as learning, writing and work. It becomes sinful when it is used to lie, cheat, deceive or spread unchecked religious claims.
Can I ask AI religious questions?
You can use it to find topics, but check every verse and hadith it gives you, and take rulings from a qualified scholar. AI tools often invent hadith and references.
Is AI art haram?
Many scholars advise avoiding AI images of people and animals, treating them like drawings. AI images of landscapes, objects and calligraphy are allowed. Scholars differ on photographs and screens.
Is it haram to work in AI?
No, as long as what you build is not itself for something haram, such as gambling, deepfakes or deception.
Will AI replace scholars?
No. A fatwa needs a person who understands the texts, the school and the questioner's situation, and who answers to Allah for it. AI can help scholars search, not replace them.
Sources
- Sahih Muslim 101, from Abu Hurayrah.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5950, from Abdullah ibn Masud.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 110, from Abu Hurayrah, and the introduction of Sahih Muslim. The hadith is reported by many Companions.
- On the principle that things are permitted by default: Ibn Nujaym, al-Ashbah wa al-Naza'ir (Hanafi), and the usul works of the other schools.
- Quran 2:29, 96:4 to 5, 49:6, 49:12, 3:188, 17:36, 17:85 and 22:73, Arabic from the Uthmani text, translation by Sahih International.
The rulings on this page are pending review by the scholars on our team.