The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Developing Contemporary Fatwas and Analyzing Jurisprudential Texts: Empirical Evidence and the S.A.F.E.-Fiqh Framework

Abstract

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Islamic jurisprudence represents one of the most consequential and contested intersections of modern technology and religious scholarship. This study investigates the role of AI in developing contemporary fatwas and analysing jurisprudential texts, employing a mixed-methods design integrating document analysis (86 items), semi-structured interviews (N=45 across muftis, AI specialists, Dar al-Iftāʿ administrators, and Islamic studies academics), and systematic comparative evaluation of AI-generated versus human-authored fatwas (24 pairs). AI demonstrates strong performance in semantic text search (88%), cross-madhab citation retrieval (82%), and fatwa database analysis (83%), but critically underperforms on the dimensions most essential to valid fatwa issuance: depth of reasoning (AI: 4.2/10 vs. human: 9.4/10), consideration of maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah (2.9 vs. 9.1), contextual sensitivity (3.4 vs. 9.3), and human empathy and moral intent (1.8 vs. 9.5). Scholarly consensus is near-absolute: 97.8% of participants affirmed that AI must never issue binding fatwas independently and that mandatory human oversight is required for all AI-assisted outputs; 93.3% supported the development of Sharīʿah-focused AI models. Evaluation of eight AI platforms confirmed that Islamic-specific tools (al-Shamela AI: 8.1; Hadith Scholar AI: 7.6) significantly outperform general-purpose LLMs (GPT-4: 4.5) on Sharīʿah-aligned jurisprudential tasks. The study proposes the S.A.F.E.-Fiqh Framework — Scholarly Supervision, Accuracy Verification, Fiqh-Specific Training, Ethical Boundaries — as a four-pillar governance model for responsible AI integration across four hierarchical operational layers. The study concludes that AI can substantially enhance the research efficiency of Islamic legal scholarship as an assistive tool but that the exercise of ijtihād and the issuance of fatwas must remain the exclusive province of qualified human scholars.