Smart Factories & Islamic Ethics: Can AI Safety Fulfill Our Amanah (Divine Trust)?

The ethical imperative to protect workers transcends technology. As engineers shaping industrial futures, how do we balance AI's lifesaving potential with moral accountability in high-risk decisions?

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

To balance AI's lifesaving potential with moral accountability in high-risk decisions, the key is ensuring that AI systems are designed with strong ethical oversight. While AI can make processes more efficient and save lives, it must always be guided by human values.

The balance comes from making sure AI systems are transparent, fair, and aligned with the goal of Maslaha (public welfare). Engineers must create AI models that prioritize safety, minimize risks, and provide clear accountability. Human judgment should remain at the core of decision-making, using AI as a tool to enhance, not replace, moral responsibility. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that AI serves humanity’s best interests while upholding ethical standards and safeguarding lives.

The question of industrialization in many Muslim countries poses a lot of ethical questions in the realm of Islamic jurisprudence, especially in regards to the rights of workers and to protecting the natural environment. We have the hindsight of history to see how industrialization in the past caused intense pollution of the environment, as we see today in Iraq, an issue exacerbated by sandstorms leading to popular unrest.

Additionally, we can see in the West in places like Europe and America how industrialization brought workers from the rural countryside into intense subjugation, including 14 hour days and child workers in unsafe working conditions. Something we see similarly in the exploitation of migrant works in some Gulf states.

In the Hadith, we see that fair treatment of working people is a command of Islamic jurisprudence, not secular ideology. Nabi Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam, legislated the rights of workers well before the secular ideology of the industrial era.

For one, the worker must be paid his wages in a timely manner. Withholding wages is a form of theft and serious sin against Allah:

Secondly, the worker must not be pushed beyond his or her ability. Here is a section from Hadith:

We also learn from Hadith that Nabi Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam, lived without signs of luxury, was compassionate to the orphans as having been an orphan himself, and gave his surplus to provide basic sustenance to the poorest and homeless Muslims of Al Suffah in Madinah. The Commander of the Faithful, salallahu alayhi wa salam, never neglected the rights of the poor and lived in material humility himself in respect to the rights of the poor.

Muslims are held to a higher standard of moral conduct, we cannot simply do whatever we want for our own benefit, such as neglecting the rights of workers in order to collect more profit. Pushing workers to extreme hours is unsafe and exploitative, as many do to migrant workers, and is unlawful. Withholding wages, which also happens to migrant workers, is also unlawful. To transgress the rights of the poor is against Allah and brings shame on the Ummah, we should not follow the example of those who have done this.

Working people deserve to be treated fairly, the rights of the poor must be respected in the sight of Allah. To be paid a fair wage, on time. To be given secure working conditions and reasonable hours of work. Finally, to be stewards of the beautiful creation of Allah and to avoid polluting the lands that Allah has granted our dominion over. To this end, the passage of laws respecting the rights of workers according to Shariah is important and leads to an increace in quality of living in Muslim lands. Additionally, the passage of laws protecting the environment from industrial pollution, the number one cause of environmental destruction and contributor to unsafe working conditions, is also in the realm of Shariah and Islamic jurisprudence.

In summary, Muslims are held to a higher standard of conduct when it come to the rights of workers. Our religion explicitly commands us to treat workers fairly and respect the rights of the poor, so the passage of laws to protect these rights is in line with Shariah and Islamic jurisprudence.