By Dr. Muhammad Husni Bin Mohd Amin
Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia
26 December 2023
According to Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) in his Muqaddimah, the various crafts and branches of knowledge are the result of the human mind’s intellectual abilities, which is always in the habit of transforming simple or luxury crafts from potentialities into actualities. He adds that the easiest way to habituate science is through clear language expressions when discussing or disputing scientific problems.
The science which develops within the human mind–through sense perception, memory retention, pattern recognition, image manipulation, and conception, is what we call experience through which the mind innovates work towards perfection.
The elimination of old jobs and the introduction of new ones—what was briefly called disruptive technology or innovation—are due to the fact that technology is a scientific art.
Like crafts, science and technology are likewise the result of the intellectual abilities. The quality and refinement in science and technology are indications that civilisation is flourishing, which is in turn predicated by the fulfilment of basic human necessities.
Islamic arts are proofs of a thriving civilisation; from the Andalusian architecture, the Moroccan pavilions, and the Bahri Mamluk muqarnas portal ornamented vaulting decorations, to the geometric, floral, and inscriptional mosaic tile designs adorning the old Timurid madrasah buildings in Registan Square and Shah-i-Zinda mausoleums in Samarkand.
Not only those were made by artisans in the past who worked to recreate only a Qur’anic vision of Paradise rather than a ‘Heaven on Earth,’ they were also made with the sufficient and ultimate reminder in the artisans’ hearts and minds that it is God Who is the Best of Creators (Surah al-Mu’minun [12]: 14).
The trajectory of the civilisation can either cause the crafts to refine or adulterate. As the present civilisation declines, it inflicts a toll upon the crafts and arts of the modern world where even the fulfilment of necessities is an uphill battle.
In the book Reflections of an English Muslim (2015), author and connoisseur of Islamic arts and culture Ahmed Paul Keeler draws a similitude between a canary and an artist. The canary would be the first to die when brought to certain deep ends of a mine where deadly gases were present thereby quickly alerting the miners.
The artist would have experienced a metaphorical death every time he ventured to reflect the modern world’s cruelty, depravity, chaos, roboticness, shallowness, and emptiness in his works, which Keeler calls as “warnings to society.” Both the canary and the artist are hypersensitive, thus warners of hidden dangers.
In today’s context, a new breed of artists called ‘prompters’, armed with the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as DALL.E 2, Jasper Art, and Midjourney just to name a few, easily bypasses years of education as experienced by their classic predecessors to create a multitude of photographically realistic works of art within a short span of time.
However, without the language skills and the sciences to discipline the mind as Ibn Khaldun described, the prompters merely propagate new forms of the metaphorical death.
Indeed, the promptings would be the continued regurgitation, albeit AI-assisted, of cruelty, depravity, chaos, roboticness, shallowness, and emptiness into the present century.
There are important questions that need to be asked with regard to the current trajectory of AI development and the end goal of AI-assisted designs and products, such as: Is it intended so that one feels immense pride of one’s ability to ‘create’ as God creates? Will such creations be so realistic that they deceive many, an act which also happens to be the other meaning of ‘artifice’?
The Prophet Muhammad had said, “The painter of pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, “make alive what you have created”” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 7557).
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (d. 1449 A.D.) states in his commentary Fath al-Bari that the abovementioned hadith refers to God’s challenge to and humiliation upon painters, designers, and makers who were immensely proud of their life-like creations that they try to equate their own creativity with that of the Creator’s.
If the intentions do not count among the answers, then why is it so designed? If there is no beneficial purpose (e.g. learning, business), then creating through such increasingly encouraging AI is futile work and serves only to add more to the confusion blurring the line between truth and falsehood.
Copy and paste:21 June 2024 > 14 Zulhijjah 1445H: 11.46 a.m
No comments:
Post a Comment