May one ask artificial intelligence for a fatwa?

A question about turning to artificial-intelligence applications on sharia matters and relying on their rulings, in which IslamQA answered that artificial intelligence is a permissible tool in principle, but may not be asked for fatwas nor relied upon in religious matters because it lacks the qualifications of a mufti and its answers are deficient; a researcher may use it to gather material provided he verifies everything, and a layman may use it to get a general idea or to reach trustworthy sources, but not act on a fatwa it generates. ¹

The questioner asked whether he may turn to artificial-intelligence applications to ask them about some sharia matters, take the ruling from them and rely on the rulings they give. ¹

The site began by defining the request for a fatwa and the fatwa itself, quoting al-Fayyumi in al-Misbah al-Munir (2/462) and al-Raghib al-Isfahani in al-Mufradat (p. 625) that a fatwa is the answer to a difficult point of law, and al-Mardawi in al-Insaf (28/314) that the mufti states the sharia ruling and informs of it without binding, unlike the judge, who binds. ¹ It then defined artificial intelligence, using the definition of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, as systems that gather data and use it to predict, recommend or decide with varying degrees of autonomy, and said it is a tool like any other that may be used in what does not contradict sharia, since the default for things is permissibility, while its use in what involves a forbidden thing, harm to others or deception is barred, as is training it on false information to mislead users. ¹

The site said that issuing fatwas holds a lofty station, that of signing on God's behalf, undertaken only by one who meets conditions including Islam, maturity, sound mind, integrity, knowledge of sharia, the faculty of understanding and derivation, and understanding of reality; it quoted al-Shafi'i, as reported by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi in al-Faqih wa-l-Mutafaqqih (2/331), that no one may give fatwas in God's religion unless he knows God's Book, its abrogating and abrogated and its clear and ambiguous verses, and is versed in hadith, language and the differences of the scholars of the regions, and Ibn al-Qayyim in I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in (1/189) that a mufti can only give a true fatwa by understanding the reality and understanding what is required in it, then applying one to the other. ¹ It ruled that these conditions cannot be met by artificial intelligence however far it develops, so there is no warrant for relying on it; the duty is to turn to the people of knowledge, as in al-Nahl 43, and a person facing a new question is not discharged by asking someone not established as qualified to be asked. ¹

The site distinguished artificial intelligence from fatwa websites: on the websites real people answer, whether a named scholar or a team of researchers, and the site's task is to publish the fatwas attributed to their issuers, so if the body is trustworthy its fatwa may be relied on when it fits the case asked about; artificial intelligence, by contrast, imitates a human and builds a fatwa of its own by statistical and mathematical methods that do not follow the steps of reasoning used by scholars. ¹ It traced the deficiency of its answers to several causes: the unknown origin of its sources, since it answers from whatever it is fed and may draw on non-Islamic or distorted material; its failure to account for what affects a fatwa, such as differing customs, the circumstances of the questioner and the consequences, rulings being of two kinds, fixed and changeable, as it quoted from Ibn al-Qayyim's Ighathat al-Lahfan (1/330) and from Muhammad al-Zuhayli and Ahmad al-Zarqa on the change of discretionary rulings built on custom and interest; its presenting false and fabricated information with names and figures that look precise, the phenomenon called hallucination, and its changing its answer when immaterial words are altered; and its being trained by its operators on convictions that bias it towards un-Islamic conceptions in matters of thought, family and belief. ¹

The site then said that two kinds of people may benefit from artificial intelligence in fatwas. The scholarly researcher may use it for an initial picture, for reaching sources he then consults himself, for summarising books and studies, and for understanding the reality of contemporary questions, without relying on it; he must verify every quotation and go back to the sources himself. ¹ The person seeking an answer for himself may, if he asks only to get an idea of the subject or for general knowledge without relying on the answer, do so as the furthest extent of what is allowed, with caution and care, though the site did not favour attending to its answers even for that, since knowledge is religion; he may ask it for the references and links of the fatwas it used and consult them himself, thereby using it as a smart search engine; but asking it in order to rely on the answer it generates by itself and act on it is not lawful. ¹

The site set out two approaches among contemporary researchers: the first keeps to the default of prohibiting fatwas from it; the second distinguishes two kinds of fatwa. Where all legally responsible people stand alike and the ruling does not depend on personal circumstances, such as what nullifies ablution, the obligations of prayer and what invalidates fasting, its answers may be used under four conditions: that the body behind the application is trustworthy in issuing fatwas, that the application relies on that body's fatwas and no unknown sources, that the user can understand the expressions correctly, and that the answer is confirmed to fit the case asked about; where the fatwa rests on custom and varies with circumstances and persons, artificial intelligence may not be consulted at all. ¹ The site judged the first approach, prohibiting reliance on its answers in its present state, the stronger, because of its lack of qualification and the deficiencies in its answers, and urged Muslims to be cautious in their religion and seek knowledge from its recognised bearers. ¹

IslamQA published this answer on islamqa.info as no. 540774, dated 27 Muharram 1447, 22 July 2025. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.