Recontextualizing ChatGPT in Hadith Studies: an Epistemological Critique of Artificial Intelligence as Religious Authority

Abd. Bashir Fatmal; La Ode Ismail Ahmad

Authors

Abd. Bashir Fatmal Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4949-9356
La Ode Ismail Ahmad Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar

Keywords:

ChatGPT, Hadith Studies, Artificial Intelligence, Islamic Epistemology, Scholarly Authority

Abstract

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence, particularly ChatGPT, has transformed the way Muslims access Islamic knowledge, including hadith studies. While this technology enhances accessibility to hadith literature, it also raises fundamental epistemological concerns regarding scholarly authority and the reliability of AI-generated religious information. This study aims to examine the position of ChatGPT in hadith studies from the perspective of Islamic epistemology by analyzing its legitimacy, limitations, and implications for religious authority. Employing a qualitative library research design, the study uses descriptive-analytical and epistemological approaches. Data were collected from classical hadith literature, contemporary scholarly works, and analyses of ChatGPT-generated responses related to hadith. The findings reveal that ChatGPT effectively facilitates information retrieval and preliminary exploration of hadith literature; however, it cannot function as an independent scholarly authority because its outputs are generated through probabilistic language prediction rather than isnād verification, matn criticism, or qualified scholarly reasoning. Uncritical dependence on ChatGPT may create an illusion of algorithmic authority that gradually displaces the established role of scholars and the methodological foundations of hadith sciences. Therefore, ChatGPT should be positioned as a supporting research tool whose outputs must always be validated through primary sources, hadith criticism, and expert supervision. This study underscores the need to reconstruct the relationship between artificial intelligence and hadith epistemology so that technological innovation can coexist with the preservation of the integrity and authority of Islamic scholarship.

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