Muhammad M Said

RECLAIMING AL-KHWARIZMI:

Building Maqashid-based AI for ethical transformation in the Global context

Muhammad M Said¹

The dominant narrative of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an exclusive product of Western scientific tradition has obscured the foundational contributions of non-Western civilizations, particularly the Islamic scientific tradition. This paper seeks to deconstruct such Eurocentric historiography by revisiting the intellectual legacy of Muslim scholars such as Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn al-Haytham, and Al-Karaji, whose innovations in algebra, logic, and experimental methodology laid the groundwork for systematic thinking and algorithmic structures long before the European Enlightenment. Using a qualitative-analytical method grounded in Islamic epistemology and critical historiography, this study repositions AI as a continuation of Islamic scientific heritage, rather than a detached modern invention. The analysis reveals that the Islamic scientific tradition integrated ethical, social, and spiritual values into scientific inquiry—principles that are highly relevant in the contemporary development of explainable and ethical AI. The study then proposes the "AI-Maslahah Framework," a conceptual model that aligns AI systems with maqashid al-shariah principles such as wealth protection (ḥifẓ al-māl), social justice, transparency, and public benefit. This model is contextualized within Indonesia's Islamic finance ecosystem, particularly through the case of Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI), as a pathway to ethical digital transformation. This research contributes to the discourse on Islamic AI by bridging the gap between classical Islamic knowledge and modern technology, offering an inclusive, ethical, and spiritually rooted alternative to technocratic AI models.