Why some Muslims consider AI forbidden in Islam

HostWe're seeing AI pictures everywhere now, from social media to news stories. But for some people, these new tools bring up a very old and very deep worry about what we're actually allowed to make.

HostWhy are some religious scholars saying that using AI to make pictures of people might go against the core rules of the faith?

GuestIt goes back to a long history in Islam about making images of living things. There are sayings from the Prophet that tell people not to try and copy God's work. The idea is that only God can give life, and when a person tries to draw a human or an animal, they're acting like they have the same power to create. For a long time, this meant many artists focused on shapes and flowers instead of faces. Now, AI does exactly what those old rules warned about. You give it a few words and it builds a person out of nothing. To some, this feels like we're overstepping. We're playing at being a maker in a way that's not our place.

HostBut we have had cameras for a long time. Is AI really different from just taking a photo of a friend?

GuestThat's the heart of the fight. When cameras first came out, people were worried then, too. But many thinkers decided a photo is just like a mirror. It catches light that's already there in the world. It's not an artist sitting down and building a person from their own imagination. But AI doesn't work like a camera. It doesn't look at a real person through a lens. It looks at millions of old pictures and then builds a new person who has never lived. That feels more like the act of making than just catching light. When you tell a computer to make a girl in a red dress, you're calling a person into being. For some, that's the very thing they were told to avoid.

HostIt still feels like a bit of a stretch to say typing a prompt is the same as trying to be God. It's just a person using a tool, right?

GuestIn this view, the tool doesn't matter as much as the result. There's a famous idea that on the last day, anyone who made an image will be asked to breathe life into it. Since they can't, it shows they were wrong to try. If you use AI to make a very life-like person, you're still the one who asked for it to exist. You're the one who gave the order. And because these images look so real, they create a world of shadows that look just like God's work. It's not about how the tool works. It's about the intent to make something that looks like it has a soul.

HostIf that's the case, what about using AI for things that actually help people, like medicine or science?

GuestThat's where the rules often change. In the faith, there's a big focus on the public good. Most scholars would say that if an image helps save a life, it's okay. If a doctor needs an AI picture of a heart to learn how to fix one, that's a need, not a choice. The problem is making images for no real reason, or just for fun and beauty. It's the vanity of it that causes the worry. When it's for a good cause, the rules tend to bend because the goal is to help, not to show off or to copy life for the sake of it. But since we use AI for everything now, it's getting harder to see where the need ends and the play begins.

HostSo the real issue isn't just the pixels on the screen, but whether we're trying to build a world that rivals the real one.

GuestSome even argue that digital images aren't real anyway because they're just light that can be turned off in a second. They say if it's not a physical statue, it might not count as a real image. But as the pictures on our phones look more and more like real people, that path is getting harder to walk. The big fear for these scholars is that we might lose our sense of what's real and what's a copy. They're worried we might forget that we're the ones who are made, not the ones who make life.

HostI mean, if we can't tell the difference anymore, then the rule against making a rival to life feels much more urgent.

GuestSome teachers now warn that the more a digital face looks like a real one, the closer we get to that day when we'll be asked to breathe a soul into something that was only ever light.

HostThose old rules about paint and stone have found a new home in our screens as we try to figure out our place in a world we can so easily copy.