Scholarly Works and Research
If you work in tech, this one is for you.
Our ancestors had the wheel and fire. Those were tools: they did their job and stopped there. What we build today goes much further. It shapes what people believe, what they want and how they feel.
Social media showed the world Palestine in a way no newspaper ever had. The same apps have left millions anxious and unable to stay with a single thought. Now AI is fast becoming the filter through which people read, write and learn.
So before we ask whether something works, we should ask what it does to the person on the other side of the screen.
Imām al-Ghazālī رحمه الله set the measure nine centuries ago:
وَمَقْصُودُ الشَّرْعِ مِنَ الْخَلْقِ خَمْسَةٌ: أَنْ يَحْفَظَ عَلَيْهِمْ دِينَهُمْ وَنَفْسَهُمْ وَعَقْلَهُمْ وَنَسْلَهُمْ وَمَالَهُمْ
“The Sharīʿah aims to protect five things in people: their faith, their life, their mind, their family line and their wealth. Whatever protects these is good. Whatever destroys them is harm.”
By that measure, an app designed to steal attention is harming the mind, and a platform that carries truth is serving the dīn.
Build with that in mind, and let the world see the goodness of Islam in what we make.
📚 al-Mustaṣfā, Imām al-Ghazālī, p. 174 (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1st ed., 1413/1993)