Between Hadith and Algorithms: The Epistemic Transformation of Farāiḍ by Era Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The hadith of the Prophet states that the science of farāiḍ is the first science to be uprooted from the face of the earth. This prophetic warning is classically interpreted as a sign of the fading of the scientific authority of Muslims due to the death of scholars and the loss of a substantive understanding of inheritance law. However, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) presents a new epistemological paradox. At a time when humans are increasingly losing their manual ability to calculate farāiḍ, machines can do so with high precision. This article seeks to reinterpret the relationship between the revocation of knowledge (naz' al-'ilm) in hadith and algorithmic preservation by artificial intelligence. With the approach of hadith epistemology, maqāṣid al-sharī'ah epistemology, and post-human epistemology, this study shows that AI does not cancel the meaning of the hadith, but instead confirms it. What is missing is not the data or the formula of farāiḍ, but rūḥ al-'ilm, which is the soul of understanding and awareness of the value behind knowledge. The findings of this study confirm the ontological difference between the knowledge possessed by machines and the science brought to life by human reason. Finally, this article offers a new conceptual framework, namely trans-human Islamic epistemology, that places AI as instrumental intelligence under the control of moral consciousness and maqāṣid al-sharī'ah.