AI, Brain Death Detection, and Islamic Law

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad

Keywords: AI ethics, Islamic jurisprudence, Brain death

TL;DR: AI systems that detect covert consciousness should inform Islamic views of certainty, brain death, and surrogate decision-making and vice versa

Abstract: The deployment of machine learning systems capable of detecting covert consciousness in neurologically injured patients creates a profound challenge at the intersection of clinical medicine, AI ethics, and Islamic jurisprudence. We argue that the shift from binary clinical verdicts to probabilistic, temporally granular neural-state estimates should be addressed through three foundational constructs in Islamic legal epistemology: bayyina (clear evidentiary proof), yaqin (epistemic certainty), and the theologically mandated agnosticism about the nature of the ruh (soul). We survey the current technical literature on AI-based consciousness detection, map it onto the landscape of Islamic brain death scholarship, and identify key challenges. We also discuss implications for AI surrogate decision systems.

Track: Track 1: ML Research Addressing Challenges Faced by Muslim Communities

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Submission Number: 38