From Bayt al-Hikmah to Artificial Intelligence: Reconstructing the Islamic Scientific Tradition in Building a Knowledge-Based Civilisation

Ramin; Aziz Sholeh

doi:10.65049/4h00nf83

Authors

Ramin Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia Author
Aziz Sholeh Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung, Indonesia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.65049/4h00nf83

Keywords:

Bayt al-Hikmah, Artificial Intelligence, Islamic scholarly tradition, knowledge civilisation, maṣlaḥah

Abstract

The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed the ways in which knowledge is produced, accessed, transmitted, and utilised in society. This transformation requires a scholarly framework that is oriented not only towards technological capabilities, but also towards the validity of knowledge, human responsibility, the integration of disciplines, and the pursuit of public benefit. This study aims to analyse and reconstruct the principles of the scholarly tradition of Bayt al-Hikmah in order to formulate their relevance to the development of a knowledge civilisation in the AI era. The study employs a qualitative approach using a library research method. The data were analysed through qualitative content analysis, comparative-conceptual analysis, and conceptual reconstruction of the literature on Bayt al-Hikmah, Islamic intellectual traditions, AI, and technology ethics. The findings identify five principles that remain relevant for recontextualisation: openness to knowledge, the transmission and transformation of knowledge, knowledge verification through human oversight, interdisciplinary integration, and the orientation of knowledge towards maṣlaḥah. These five principles constitute a conceptual framework that positions AI as an instrument for the transformation of knowledge, while humans remain the responsible subjects for determining the validity and use of knowledge. This study proposes a reconstruction of the Bayt al-Hikmah tradition as an epistemic foundation for the development of an open, critical, integrated, and maṣlaḥah-oriented Islamic knowledge civilisation in the AI era.

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