Ethical Challenges and Islamic Professional Standards of Human-AI Interaction in Malaysian Islamic Higher Education

Abstract

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Islamic Studies at Malaysian universities brings up major ethical concerns. It threatens academic honesty and creates a real risk of sacred texts being misinterpreted. Even though it is desperately needed to guide AI use with Islamic principles, there is currently a huge lack of specific ethical guidelines. Thus, this paper aims to explore (i) the current phenomenon of the ethical challenges of AI in Islamic higher education (usage, benefits and challenges), (ii) Islamic ethical principles to implement in responsible AI use, and (iii) recommendations of regulatory and oversight mechanisms to guide responsible AI use in Islamic higher education. Using qualitative research design via in-depth structured interviews with six expert academicians across different Malaysian Islamic Higher Education (UTM, UNIPSAS, USIM, UniSZA, UiTM), two critical current crises are found to be commonly happened among Islamic Studies students: (i) AI making things up: AI frequently invents fake data and non-existent references (known as AI hallucinations), and (ii) Widespread cheating: Students are increasingly just copying and pasting AI answers. Respondents viewed these actions to be directly violating core Islamic values, specifically honesty (Ṣiddiq) and trustworthiness (Amānah). The recommended professional standards, grounded in Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah, mandate: compulsory verification (Tabayyun), strict source checking or rubric application (sanad), upgrading assessments, and mandatory transparent AI use. For students and lecturers, these standards demand a practice of rigorous critical verification of all AI-generated content alongside personal ethical self-governance which may not be time-and-scale efficient if no automated tool to accommodate this idea. For institutions, it necessitates establishing AI policies and curricula anchored in Maqāṣid al-Sharī'ah to safeguard intellectual integrity (ḥifẓ al-’aql) and foster intrinsic moral accountability over mere legal enforcement. This proves to require more than just guidelines and regulations, like new curriculum and systems that require large scale of corrective action.