Verification in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Verification in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

الحمد لله وحده، والصلاة والسلام على من لا نبي بعده، نبينا محمد، وعلى آله وصحبه، وسلّم الله تسليمًا كثيرًا. أما بعد.

All praise is due to Allah, and His praise and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his family, his companions, and his followers until the Day of Judgment.

I bear witness that Allah is the only one worthy of worship and Muhammad ﷺ is His last and final messenger.

The Spread of Lies as a Sign of the Last Day

My dear brothers and sisters, Imam Ahmad reported that Abu Hurairah said that the Prophet ﷺ said the Day of Judgment will not be established — will not start — until the following signs will appear. And one of these signs:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 8694)

— Lie will be widespread. And I cannot think of a time like our times today where lies and delusions, rumours and false information spread like fire on dry grass.

It is so hard sometimes even to verify the information. With all that we see from technology — a few years back I thought with social media lies were spreading — but now we are in another level with artificial intelligence, with the AI technology, and things are going more and more and more. This shows us that technology without ethics, advancement in technology without self-responsibility and without good moral ethics that is planted and seeded and put as a foundation for this new technology, it will only be a curse in the future.

But if it is combined with good faith, with good manners, with morality and principle — people — this will lead to the advancement of the society that adopted this new technology. And that is one of the reasons we say: as technology advances, people are indeed in more and more need of Allah and of religion to be guided morally, so they can hold on to these principles which will guide them to use this technology in the right way.

The Islamic Concept of Tathabbut — Verification

My brothers and sisters, in our religion there is a concept called al-tathabbut — verifying. Allah said:

O you who have believed, if there comes to you a fasiq — a disobedient and untrustworthy person — with a report, investigate. Tabayyanū — basically, make sure that you understand the truth, to understand the matter in its true form. And there is another way this verse was recited: fatathabbatū — which carries a slightly different meaning.

Tathabbut means knowing whether the matter is established or if it is simply a rumour or a lie. So there are two things: first, to establish the fact that this is really what was said; and then another step, which is to understand it correctly — and only after that do you begin to act. That methodology of processing information before it is passed on to others is so important and something that is in great need today.

Lessons from the Time of the Prophet ﷺ

We are in great need of this today. You know how the Prophet ﷺ was very upset with Usama ibn Zayd when he killed the man who said لا إله إلا الله on the battlefield. He said, "Ya Rasulullah, he only said it to save his blood. He did not really believe in it." The Prophet ﷺ asked him if he had verified. He said, "Did you open his chest and check what is in his heart?" That is an assumption, and you cannot act upon that assumption.

And we know that there were so many rumours in the time of the Prophet ﷺ that had their impact. One of the greatest was the rumour about the Prophet's ﷺ wife and how it affected the Prophet's ﷺ household personally, and the hypocrites ran away with it. The rumour during the Battle of Uhud that the Prophet ﷺ was killed caused some people to lose heart — the morale of the army collapsed, and the Muslims lost that advantage and high morale because of the rumour that the Prophet ﷺ was killed.

That is the methodology — especially when you hear something slandering someone or accusing someone of something. Allah says:

"And if only, when you heard it, you had said: 'It is not for us to speak of this. Exalted are You — this is a great slander.'"

It is not an excuse to say, "I am just passing on the information. I am just forwarding it." The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Introduction, Hadith 5 — reported from Abu Hurairah)

"It is enough lying for a person to narrate and relate to people everything that they hear and just pass it on." It is a great form of lying — to simply relate to people everything that you hear and pass it on. And not only that — can you imagine if you actually believe it, and you base your decisions, your views, and your judgments on these rumours and unverified information?

If you have been on social media platforms and WhatsApp groups and you see all the things that people share, and you know that so many of them are simply fabricated lies, you will understand how common this problem is today.

The Obligation to Verify Before Sharing

So we have to be in the business of verifying, and also in the business of understanding. Somebody sent me a message not long ago — and the message itself, if you read it, says the opposite of what the person is claiming about it. He said, "This person said this and this," and he was quoting him and included an image of his post on Twitter. I just invested a little extra twenty seconds to zoom in and read what he actually said in that tweet — and it did not at all align with what this person was claiming.

It is really sad. And things become even more crucial and more critical and more important when it comes to people we deal with directly — like friends and family members — and also in things that affect the general public.

Another thing that Islam teaches us — Allah says:

"And if only, when you heard it, the believing men and believing women had thought good of their own and said: 'This is an obvious falsehood.'"

"O you who have believed, avoid many assumptions — indeed, some assumptions are sin."

There are two types of backbiting: the first is with the tongue, when you speak ill of people; but the other is with the heart — when you do not use your tongue — which is when you have those negative assumptions sitting in your heart and your mind about people. That is also a form of backbiting, as the later scholars have mentioned.

Do not ever underestimate the impact of your statement. If the information you spread is false, we have an ethical responsibility — we need to understand that there is a real impact on society, and we are dealing with that today.

Long ago they used to say: believe half of what you see, and don't believe anything that you hear. That was an old saying. So what do we say today?

"When you received it with your tongues and said with your mouths that of which you had no knowledge, and you thought it was insignificant — while it was in the sight of Allah tremendous." Especially if it involves slandering someone, or speaking about the honour of your Muslim brothers and sisters, or innocent men and women, or trusted men and women, or scholars and people of knowledge, or an entire nation. Remember that everything you say is documented, and you will be asked about it.

The Prophet ﷺ said — and this is directed at those who have believed with their tongues but whose faith has not yet entered their hearts:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4880; also reported in Musnad Ahmad)

"O you who have believed with your tongues but faith has not yet entered your hearts — do not backbite your Muslim brothers, do not mock them, and do not follow their private matters. For whoever follows their private matters, Allah will expose their private matters. And whomsoever Allah exposes their private matters, He will disgrace them — even if they did it in the most private of places, even if it was inside their own home."

Reviving Critical Thinking — An Islamic Methodology

I think we are living in a time where we have to revive a concept that we are very familiar with as Muslims. In the old days, whenever there was a narration examined by the ulama, they did not only look at who said it — they also looked at what was said. It is a methodology where people scrutinised narrations of hadith based on looking at the content as well — not only at the chain of narrators. There were critical thinkers, and that is so important to revive today.

It is crucial to encourage critical thinking when we receive information — to verify the facts, to ask and question: what is the source of this information? Assess the credibility of the information before accepting it or passing it on. This methodology is so important to revive, especially among the young — and I would say among the older as well. My brothers and sisters, it is important for us to maintain that critical thinking and to filter information before we accept it, build judgments on it, or even sometimes take positions based on it.

I have seen so many people build political positions, views, and rulings based on information that was not verified, or was misunderstood, or was only half-true. And sometimes half a truth can be worse than a full lie.

May Allah protect all of us. And if we follow the wisdom of Muhammad ﷺ, many of these things will be resolved. He said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2317; also in Musnad Ahmad — a hadith of Hasan status)

"Know that among the signs of a person's good Islam is their abandonment of what does not concern them."

Media Literacy and Civic Responsibility

I do believe, my brothers and sisters, that we should advocate for adding to our education systems — both public and private — special materials that focus on teaching people how to verify information: media literacy, and digital media today with all of its hazards, advantages, and disadvantages. Educating the younger generations and educating society at large is so important as we advance further with this technology. That is why I believe teaching individuals how to navigate AI-generated content can absolutely empower them to make informed and wise decisions.

And I want to end this khutbah with something you might hear more about in the coming weeks. As we live in Texas, we have a lot of mess in the political scene these days — as you know, with all the crisis that happened in our capital. Things that you never thought you would hear about: using the federal government and the FBI to arrest elected officials simply because they are opposing what appears to be a very dirty trick to redistrict the state of Texas and create extra seats for whatever political reason, in the most suspicious timing you can ever imagine.

We are all open to debate, we are all open to logical discussion over matters like this — but for things to escalate to that level is such a shame. And I am saying this because this cannot just happen while we are putting our heads in the sand. This is affecting you, affecting me, affecting everyone here.

We have to understand — and I have said this before and I will keep saying it — we are all in the same boat. If this boat sinks, we all sink with it. And do not say, "I'll just go back to my country." Your children — this is their country. And the world today is so entangled with one another; America is not a small country. It is in our best interest — in the name of humanity — to make sure that our country remains balanced. I know all the faults in our history, but it is so important not to let chaos take hold. It is part of our responsibility as community members, as Muslims.

So many of us have come to this country, been raised in this country, have done so much good to it and it has given back — and we have worked hard to earn what we have today. That is fair. But at the very least we have a responsibility to our state, to our city: be informed, do not fall into rumours, go to the source, ask questions, object if something is wrong, contact the people in charge, the people who are leading and have expertise in this area — and we are not short of them in our community. But it takes you taking this seriously and expressing your voice.

I do believe that having checks and balances in our community, in our society, in our country is so important and crucial. And there are people who do not want those checks and balances to exist going into the next elections. But more will be said, inshallah, on topics like this.

It is just so disheartening — I have been out of the country for two months, visiting many countries, and people were telling me, "You have become worse than a third world country. You have become a banana republic." It hurts to hear that. And some of it, honestly, is true. But you know what I know of my community, what I know of our society — that we are capable of getting back on our feet. And that has always been the reason for why we have progressed over the decades as a nation.

May Allah protect all of us, and may Allah bring goodness to all of us, and may Allah make us among those who stand for the truth. And I ask Allah to bring a quick and complete relief to our brothers and sisters. And I ask Allah to make the plots being devised against our brothers and sisters in Gaza the very source of failure for those who are plotting evil against them.