A short 3-page commentary/article, published in Philosophy &amp; Technology, volume 38, article 74, in May 2025 that considers questions such as:<blockquote>Who owns data?</blockquote><blockquote>Who should benefit from data?</blockquote><blockquote>Can data be treated as a form of digital endowment?</blockquote><blockquote>How should AI developers balance innovation with Islamic ethical obligations?</blockquote>&nbsp;In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), data is often called the new oil—an essential asset for training algorithms and fueling intelligent systems. However, the ethical considerations surrounding this data’s ownership, use, and benefits remain contentious. The concept of data endowment—viewing data generated by individuals as a valuable resource—can be ethically aligned with the Islamic tradition of waqf (endowment), offering a culturally grounded model for responsible AI development. In Islamic jurisprudence, a waqf is an inalienable charitable endowment, often comprising assets like land or buildings, whose returns are used for the public good. The endowment is held in trust, and its custodians are ethically and legally bound to manage it without personal gain, in line with the principles of maslaha (public benefit) and adl (justice) (Kozlowski, 1985). If we reimagine data as a modern form of waqf, AI systems built upon such data must operate with the same moral constraints— serving community welfare, ensuring equity, and preventing harm.In digital contexts, individuals contribute vast amounts of personal data, knowingly or unknowingly, that are used to train predictive models and intelligent systems. While often invisible, this data endowment has significant social and economic value. Yet, as Zuboff (2019) argues in her seminal work The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, the commodification of personal data frequently occurs without consent or fair redistribution of benefits (Zuboff &amp; York, 2019). From an Islamic ethical standpoint, …&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Abdulqadir J. NashwanSpringer Philosophy &amp; Technology (2025) 38:74 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-025-00905-5

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In Islamic jurisprudence, a waqf is an inalienable charitable endowment, often comprising assets like land or buildings, whose returns are used for the public good. The endowment is held in trust, and its custodians are ethically and legally bound to manage it without personal gain, in line with the principles of maslaha (public benefit) and adl (justice) . It is argued that AI systems built upon such data must operate with the same moral constraints— serving community welfare, ensuring equity, and preventing harm.

Data Endowment as a Digital Waqf: An Islamic Ethical Framework for AI Development

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are revolutionising key sectors such as healthcare, finance, and governance, while raising ethical challenges, including algorithmic bias, privacy violations, and environmental sustainability. Dominant Western ethical paradigms, such as Luciano Floridi’s Information Ethics, emphasise procedural integrity and transparency but often lack spiritual and metaphysical grounding prevalent in global traditions. Most approaches to Islamic ethics for AI have employed Maqasid al-Shariah (objectives of Islamic law) and Qawaid Fiqhiyya (legal maxims), that apply legal principles to ethical questions but face limitations in addressing the complexities of emerging technologies especially that they, initially, were developed to address problems in Islamic law and not in Ethics. This paper introduces the prospects of Taha Abdurrahman’s I’timāni (trusteeship) framework as a unified ethical model for AI technologies. Rooted in the concept of divine trust (amana), the framework integrates three foundational covenants— Ontological, Epistemological, and Existential—offering a comprehensive vision of human responsibility toward God, knowledge, and creation. This approach provides ways to prioritise moral accountability with actionable governance strategies, as we demonstrate its practical applicability. We show that from the Islamic perspective, a&nbsp; philosophy of ethics approach is not only more appropriate, but more promising and comprehensive than ones based on jurisprudential rulings, as combating the ethical concerns of data-driven AI in a neoliberal environment requires an overhaul in worldview with cross-cultural respect and care for all.&nbsp;&nbsp;Fatima Ali · Karim Bouzoubaa· Frank Gelli · Boumediene Hamzi, Suhair KhanSpringer: Philosophy &amp; Technology (2025) 38:120 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-025-00922-4

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This paper introduces an example ethical framework. Rooted in the concept of divine trust (amana), the framework integrates three foundational covenants— Ontological, Epistemological, and Existential—offering a comprehensive vision of human responsibility toward God, knowledge, and creation. This approach provides ways to prioritise moral accountability with actionable governance strategies. Discussions show that from the Islamic perspective, a philosophy of ethics approach is not only more appropriate, but more promising and  comprehensive than ones based on jurisprudential rulings, as combating the ethical concerns of data-driven AI in a neoliberal environment requires an overhaul in worldview with cross-cultural respect and care for all.

Islamic Ethics and AI: An Evaluation of Existing Approaches to AI using Trusteeship Ethics

Each chapter can be read independently, but the overall structure of the book provides a complementary and detailed understanding of some of the most pressing issues brought about by AI and digital innovation. Given its modular nature, it is a text suitable for readers who wish to gain a reliable orientation about the ethics of AI and for experts who wish to know more about specific areas of the current debate.

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This book offers a synthesis of investigations on the ethics, governance and policies affecting the design, development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). 

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