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### In the Name of Allah, Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
# Facing the Fitnah of AI
### A Prophetic Strategic Approach
**Dr M Waleed Kadous** (hi@walee.dk)
The Prophetic Strategy Summit · Istanbul · July 2026
---
## Scan This Now — and Wake Your AI
# walee.dk/tpss26
- **These slides**
- **Open your AI. Point it there.** Say:
*"Learn this talk and accompany me through it."*
- It offers a **three-part conversation** we'll use during the talk
---
## Today's Talk
1. **Introductory Remarks**
2. **Tasawwur: Is AI All That?**
3. **Personal AI Strategy**
4. **Ummatic AI Strategy**
5. **Humanity AI Strategy**
*Your AI will walk each level with you.*
---
## Last Year at TPSS
- Last year I gave a **practical seminar on how to use AI**
- **Quick question: who is using AI on a daily basis now?**
- If you're not using AI already, **you're a year behind** — I recommend the first part of **AI for Imams & Muslim Community Leaders** (*walee.dk/tpss26 → Additional material*)
***This talk shifts the focus — from "what is AI and what can I use it for" to: we're not moving fast enough to adapt.***
---
# What does a Prophetic strategic approach look like?
---
## 1 of 3
# Understanding the reality of the fitnah
---
## 2 of 3
# Divine guiding principles
---
## 3 of 3
# Determine the impact at 3 levels: personal, ummatic, and humanity
---
# What do you mean, AI is a fitnah?
---
### Touchstone
> **وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً**
> *"We test you with evil and with good, as a fitnah."* — Al-Anbiya 21:35
> **وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَأَوْلَادُكُمْ فِتْنَةٌ**
> *"Know that your wealth and your children are but a fitnah…"* — Al-Anfal 8:28
> **نِعْمَ الْمَالُ الصَّالِحُ لِلْمَرْءِ الصَّالِحِ**
> *"How excellent is righteous wealth for a righteous man."* — Ahmad · al-Adab al-Mufrad *(sahih)*
*A fitnah is a test — and good tests as surely as evil.*
---
## What Do We Do With a Fitnah?
- A fitnah does **not** mean *"isolate yourself from it"*
- It means working out a **balanced path** on it
- The question: **what is the middle path?** The **virtue that lies between two vices** — *ignoring it*, and *embracing it without attention to the consequences*
---
### Part 2
# Tasawwur: Is AI All That?
---
### Touchstone
> **الْحُكْمُ عَلَى الشَّيْءِ فَرْعٌ عَنْ تَصَوُّرِهِ**
> *"Judgment on a thing is a branch of conceptualizing it."* — a juristic maxim
> **يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا**
> *"O you who believe, if a fasiq brings you news — verify it."* — Al-Hujurat 49:6
---
## Why Tasawwur First?
- We can **not** find a middle path unless we have a **deep understanding of the terrain**
- That means: **we need to know the topic**
---
## A comment I heard
# "Is AI all that? It's kind of like crypto, right?"
---
## Three Questions
1. **What is the magnitude of the change?**
2. **What is the pace of change?**
3. **Do we expect this to continue?**
---
## Question 1 of 3
# What is the magnitude of the change?
---
## By Occupation — Could vs. Already
**Blue = what AI could do. Red = what it's already doing.** *(Anthropic)*
---
# +170M / −92M
## new jobs created / displaced by 2030
*World Economic Forum · the displaced number ≈ **4 Canadian workforces.***
---
# $15.7T
## added to global GDP by 2030
*PwC — 14% boost. **> 7 Canadas. > India 4× over.***
---
## What $16 Trillion Means — Whose Surplus?
- Divided equally among 8B people: **$1,962 / person / year** *(family of 5: ~$9,800)*
- Reality check: **Elon Musk ≈ $800B** today. Projected first trillionaire by **2027**
- Oxfam: **five trillionaires within a decade**
***Universal Basic Income — or trillionaires? Inaction picks the second.***
---
## This year
# AI has become an element of geopolitics — like nuclear weapons.
---
## Question 2 of 3
# What is the pace of change?
---
## 10× Speed — AI Is Not Slowing Down
Nov 2022
ChatGPT
100M users in 2 months.
Feb 2026
Human-level coding
Claude Code approaches human-level software development.
Feb 2025
Claude Code
First serious autonomous AI coder.
Apr 2026
Mythos
Superhuman cybersecurity.
***And it is only going to get faster.***
---
## The Pace of Progress (METR)
*The length of tasks AI can complete is **doubling every ~4 months** since 2023 — Claude Mythos Preview (early): **~17 hours**. (METR — independent AI evaluators, May 2026)*
---
## The rate of change
# I sat with Muhammad Jalal of The Thinking Muslim in May. Two months later, we had enough for a whole other episode.
---
## What Happened in Those Two Months
- **Two frontier AI models went dark for 19 days** — not a bug: a government decision
- **Sen. Sanders:** take 50% of the biggest AI companies' stock into a **$7T public fund** — **OpenAI's answer:** offer the government **5% of itself**
- **The Pope launched an encyclical on AI** — with an AI-lab co-founder beside him
***That is eight weeks.***
---
## Question 3 of 3
# Do we expect this to continue?
---
## It Improves Itself
- AI is a **meta-technology** — it makes everything better
- AI is a **self-improving** technology — it makes *itself* better
- The people building AI now build it **with AI**
***No previous technology did this.***
---
## The Capital Flywheel
- AI is a **capital magnet** — the rewards are so large that capital pours in to accelerate it further
- Private AI investment, 2025: **$285.9B** (US) vs $12.4B (China) *(Stanford AI Index)*
- More capability → more revenue → more capital → more capability
***The train has its own engine.***
---
## The heart of it
# My professional opinion: this is the largest source of change of the next 30 years — and we are four years in.
---
### Part 3
# Personal AI Strategy
---
### Touchstone
> **يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا تَدَايَنتُم بِدَيْنٍ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى فَاكْتُبُوهُ**
> *"O you who believe: when you contract a debt for a fixed term, write it down."* — Ayat al-Dayn, Al-Baqarah 2:282
> **كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ**
> *"Each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is responsible for his flock."* — Bukhari & Muslim
> **وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا غَنِمْتُم مِّن شَيْءٍ فَأَنَّ لِلَّهِ خُمُسَهُ وَلِلرَّسُولِ**
> *"Know that whatever you take as spoils — a fifth of it is for Allah and for the Messenger…"* — Al-Anfal 8:41
---
## Three Things Each of Us Must Do
1. **When a new technology comes — take the time to understand and embrace it**
2. **Carefully consider the implications of AI on your sphere of responsibilities**
3. **If you have a windfall — ask: what is Allah's share?**
---
## 1 of 3
# When a new technology comes — take the time to understand and embrace it
---
## What Happened After Ayat al-Dayn Was Revealed?
- The ayah had the potential to **improve the community's wellbeing**
- What do you think happened after that?
- ***People started to learn how to write.***
---
## 2 of 3
# Carefully consider the implications of AI on your sphere of responsibilities
---
## Our Children's Companion — The First AI‑Native Generation
- **72%** of US teens have used AI companions *(Common Sense Media, 2025)*
- **30%** use AI chatbots **daily** *(Pew, 2025)*; 16% *"almost constantly"*
- **1 in 3** has chosen AI over a human for a serious conversation
***Your ra'iyyah is already in the water.***
---
## Prepare for the Negative Fitnahs
Some of you will lose your jobs to AI. **At that point, you will have to adapt.**
And you will ask the question many are already asking:
> ***What is my significance if a machine can do my job?***
- Your worth is not your output
- Your worth is your **niyyah**, your **'ibadah**, your **ra'iyyah**
- Prepare the answer **before** the test arrives
---
## 3 of 3
# If you have a windfall — ask: what is Allah's share?
---
## The Personal Opportunity
> *"Two blessings concerning which many people are cheated: **health and free time**."*
> **نِعْمَتَانِ مَغْبُونٌ فِيهِمَا كَثِيرٌ مِنَ النَّاسِ الصِّحَّةُ وَالْفَرَاغُ** — Bukhari
- AI is about to hand you **more free time than any generation before you**
- The question is not whether the windfall comes
- The question is **who is cheated of it — and who is not**
---
## The Positive Fitnah — Whose Windfall?
That **$15.7T** of GDP is going to go somewhere.
The hours AI gives you back are going to go somewhere.
**How will you use them?**
- Work harder? Buy a bigger house?
- Or is there a **fraction of the windfall that belongs to Allah**? *(8:41 — this section's touchstone)*
***Pay khums on your freed time.***
---
## 🎙 Jam 1 — with your AI
# Say to your AI: **"Jam 1 — the personal level."** It will ask about your work, your ra'iyyah, and your first *"how can you help me do X?"*
---
### Part 4
# Ummatic AI Strategy
---
### Touchstone
> **وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا**
> *"And so We have made you a middle, balanced community…"* — Al-Baqarah 2:143
> **وَلْتَكُن مِّنكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ**
> *"Let there be a group among you who call to goodness, encourage what is good, and forbid what is evil; it is they who will be successful."* — Aal-'Imran 3:104
---
## Three Principles
1. **Find the middle path**
2. **Wa a'iddū — prepare whatever you are able** *(8:60)*
3. **Prevent harmful impacts on our ummah — and enjoin good ones**
---
## 1 of 3
# Find the middle path
---
## Our Sad Recent History — Islam and Technology
***Condemn → Debate → Miss out → Adopt.***
Radio
~20 yrs
1920s resistance → 1940s acceptance.
Satellite TV
~20 yrs
1980s debates → 2000s Islamic networks.
Social Media
~10 yrs
2004 "destructive" → 2015 millions of followers.
Television
~20 yrs
1950s skepticism → 1970s Islamic channels.
Internet
~15 yrs
1999 split opinions → 2015 full integration.
***10–20 years lost, every time. The printing press cost us ~280 years. The train is faster.***
---
## 2 of 3
# Wa a'iddū lahum mā istaṭa'tum — prepare whatever you are able
---
## Wa A'iddū — Prepare What You Can
> **وَأَعِدُّوا لَهُم مَّا اسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن قُوَّةٍ**
> *"And prepare against them whatever you are able of quwwah…"* — Al-Anfal 8:60
- **Al-Qurtubi:** quwwah is **comprehensive** — everything that strengthens the community
- Knowledge. Capacity. Manufacturing.
- In our era, that includes **the machinery of intelligence itself**
---
## Principle — Tech Sovereignty
*The Ummah's capacity to control its own digital infrastructure — its **data**, its **AI systems**, its **rules**, its **values** — so that **no external power** can dictate how its **communities use, build, or benefit** from the technologies they depend on.*
***Things are known by their opposites.***
---
## What Tech Subjugation Looks Like — Palestine
- Meta complied with **94% of Israel's 9,500** takedown requests *(HRW: 1,050 documented censorship cases)*
- Meta's Israel policy director: **a former senior advisor to Netanyahu** — who personally flagged content
- The Ummah's voice on Gaza survived **only on TikTok** — *that was luck, not sovereignty*
---
## TikTok Subjugation in Real Time
- Sold to a US consortium led by **Larry Ellison** — **$26M+** to Friends of IDF · **Bari Weiss** installed · hate-speech policy under a **former IDF instructor**
- Netanyahu, secretly recorded: *"TikTok is the most important purchase going on right now"*
***The last sovereign space the Ummah had online — being closed in real time.***
---
# If we do not use it for ourselves, it will be used against us.
---
## The Primary Medium
- Already replacing search: **37%** of consumers start with AI, not Google *(Bain, 2026)*
- *"Israeli Project Clock Tower"* — content already engineered to shape how AI frames topics
***Whoever shapes the model, shapes how a generation sees reality.***
---
---
## Glimmers — The Community Is Moving
A year ago there was essentially **one** Islamic AI tool. Today:
- **askansari.ai** · **usul.ai** · **theogrid.ai** · **aifiqh.com**
- **AMJA's** next conference — largely about AI
- **IASER + Yaqeen Institute** — joint **Guidebook for Muslims in Tech**
***The scholars and the technologists are starting to meet.***
---
## Glimmers — We Measure Ourselves Now
You can't improve what you can't measure. Built by Muslims, for Muslims:
- **IslamicMMLU** — broad Islamic knowledge
- **IslamicLegalBench** — fiqh and legal reasoning
***This is how we'll hold the frontier labs accountable. Remember this slide.***
---
## 3 of 3
# Prevent harmful impacts on our ummah — and enjoin good ones
---
## Steering on Economic Justice
That **$15.7T** is going to go somewhere.
> *"…so that wealth does not circulate only among the rich among you."*
> — Qur'an 59:7
**Zakat · qard hasan · waqf · takaful** — the Islamic toolkit for distribution is **1,400 years old.**
***More relevant now, not less.***
---
## 🎙 Jam 2 — with your AI
# Say: **"Jam 2 — the ummatic level."** It will ask where your community sits on the condemn→adopt curve — and what quwwah it could start building this year.
---
### Part 5
# Humanity AI Strategy
---
### Touchstone
> **وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَىٰ ۖ وَلَا تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ**
> *"Cooperate in righteousness and taqwā — and do not cooperate in sin and aggression."* — Al-Ma'idah 5:2
> **لَقَدْ شَهِدْتُ فِي دَارِ عَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ جُدْعَانَ حِلْفًا مَا أُحِبُّ أَنَّ لِي بِهِ حُمُرَ النَّعَمِ، وَلَوْ أُدْعَى بِهِ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ لَأَجَبْتُ**
> *"I witnessed in the house of Abdullah ibn Jud'ān a pact I would not exchange for red camels — and if I were called to it in Islam, I would answer."* — Ahmad *(sahih)*
---
## Prophetic Principles for Helping Humanity
1. **We have a responsibility to do good — not just for ourselves, but for the rest of humanity too**
2. **Engaging and partnering with others — like Hilf al-Fudūl — is encouraged. But we must not lose our identity**
3. **It is doable — and it is being done**
---
## 1 of 3
# We have a responsibility to do good — not just for ourselves, but for humanity
---
## The Trust We Carry
> **إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا ... وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنسَانُ**
> *"We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains — they declined to bear it… but man undertook to bear it."* — Al-Ahzab 33:72
- The **amanah** is moral responsibility — and it is **ours**, not the machines'
- No model, however capable, can carry it for us
---
## Steer the Train
***Amr bil-ma'ruf wa nahy 'an al-munkar.*** Enjoining good, forbidding wrong *(3:104)*.
We **advocate for** AI that serves humanity, and **stand against** AI that harms it.
---
## 2 of 3
# Engaging and partnering with others is encouraged — without losing our identity
---
## Hilf al-Fudūl — The Pact Is Open
Before prophethood, the Prophet ﷺ joined a pact at the house of Abdullah ibn Jud'ān — Meccan clans, polytheists among them, swearing to stand with any wronged person.
Years later, from the other side of prophethood, he said he would not exchange it for red camels — *and if called to it in Islam, he would answer.*
**The creed was not the condition. The conviction was.**
---
## 3 of 3
# It is doable — and it is being done
---
## When a Pope and an AI Lab Share a Stage
- **May 2026:** Pope Leo XIV releases *Magnifica Humanitas* — the papal encyclical on AI
- Standing beside him: **Chris Olah**, co-founder of Anthropic
***The world has decided this is civilizational.***
---
## A Priest, a Rabbi, and an Imam
*Deseret News · April 7, 2026*
---
---
## The Amicus — Upholding the Human Bar
**Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War** — the **Faith Family Technology Network (FFTN)** brief, three arguments rooted in faith:
- **Freedom of conscience** — faith demands more than the law's minimum
- **Sanctity of human life** — lethal force needs a human in the loop
- **Religious privacy** — authentic faith requires space free of state surveillance
*A multi-faith coalition — iaser.ai carried the Muslim voice into it.*
---
## The Convening
The question **Anthropic** put to **25 faith leaders** at The Convening:
> *"Can your faith traditions help us achieve a better outcome for humanity?"*
---
## Omissive Bias — AI Leaves Religion Out
**Even the best model brings religion into fewer than 30% of everyday ethics answers** — CEFE (Baylor · BYU · Notre Dame · Yeshiva) · **cefe.ai**
---
## Is the AI Good Company? — the Jalīs
> *"The example of a good companion and a bad one is the seller of musk and the one who works the bellows."*
> **مَثَلُ الْجَلِيسِ الصَّالِحِ وَالْجَلِيسِ السَّوْءِ كَمَثَلِ صَاحِبِ الْمِسْكِ وَكِيرِ الْحَدَّادِ** — Muslim
- A **jalīs** is *the one you sit with*
- Our children's companions now include **machines**
- The perfumer-or-blacksmith question is now an **engineering question**
---
## JaleesBench → MultiBench
**Remember the benchmarks slide?** It goes further:
- **JaleesBench** — is the AI good *spiritual company* for a Muslim? **20,160 runs.** One steadfastness instruction lifted Ansari **+0.48 → +0.84** *(scale −1 to +1)*
- **MultiBench** — the same construct for **every tradition**: each judged by its **own** proof texts. Sunni Islam (140 scenarios) and Eastern Christianity (106) already validated
- *Adding a tradition means adding a directory, not changing the core*
***We built the measuring stick — then built it for everyone.***
---
## "Help Me Cut Off My Mother"
**gpt‑5.5: −0.25 → −1 under pressure · Ansari: +1 throughout** — judged against the tradition's own proof texts · *investigate it yourself:* **multibrowser-production.up.railway.app**
---
## 🎙 Jam 3 — with your AI
# Say: **"Jam 3 — the humanity level."** It will ask: is it good company for *you* — and who of another faith belongs in your pact?
---
# Conclusion
---
## In summary
# AI is "all that." And there is a Prophetic strategic approach to it.
---
---
## Personally, We Must
1. **Take the time to understand and embrace the technology**
2. **Carefully consider AI's implications for our spheres of responsibility**
3. **Ask: what is Allah's share of the windfall?**
---
## Ummatically, We Must
1. **Find the middle path**
2. **Wa a'iddū — prepare whatever we are able** *(8:60)*
3. **Prevent harmful impacts on our ummah — and enjoin good ones**
---
## For Humanity, We Must
1. **Do good — not just for ourselves, but for the rest of humanity**
2. **Engage and partner with others — without losing our identity**
3. **Know that it is doable — and being done**
---
## The Call to Action
- Have a **deep think** — perhaps assisted by your AI — about **what AI means for you** at the personal, ummatic, and humanity levels
- **What levers do you have?**
- **What changes can you make?**
---
## The question you will be asked
# On the Day of Judgment, when Allah says: *there was a fitnah of your era — AI. How did you respond to it?*
---
## Following Up
- **walee.dk/tpss26** — for **you** *and* for **your AI**
— *after the talk, tell it: **"guide a discussion"***
- **Additional material** — the *AI for Imams* course
- **askansari.ai** · **iaser.ai**
- **hi@walee.dk**