Artificial intelligence is a tool, and tools take their ruling from their use. Nothing about generating text, images or code with a model is inherently impermissible, and scholars who have addressed AI-generated images have generally not placed them under the classical prohibition on image-making. Income from AI-assisted work is therefore ordinarily permissible. Three things change that. The first is what you produce: content promoting interest-based products, gambling, immodest imagery or falsehood is impermissible regardless of how it was made. The second is honesty about the work: taking payment for something a client reasonably believed a human researched or wrote, or submitting AI work as your own study or professional output, engages amanah and misrepresentation. The third is accuracy: publishing AI output on religious, medical or legal matters without verification spreads error at scale, and the responsibility for that sits with the publisher rather than the model.
Current direction: Needs Scholar Review. This page needs a qualified scholar to verify the exact ruling before a reader relies on it.
Educational guidance only, not a fatwa. Consult a qualified scholar for your specific case. Page created August 26, 2026.
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It depends on what they are buying. Where the deliverable is an outcome - working code, a design that performs, copy that converts - most clients are indifferent to the method and using better tools is competence. Where they are paying for human expertise, original research or your personal voice, delivering machine output takes payment for something not supplied. A reliable test: if you would be uncomfortable telling them, that discomfort is your answer. Stating AI use in your terms removes the question permanently.
Contemporary scholars who have addressed this, including Darul Ifta Birmingham, have generally held that AI-generated digital images do not fall under the classical prohibition on image-making, which concerned three-dimensional representations made for veneration. The normal rules on modesty and content still apply fully. Generating a real, identifiable person's likeness without their consent is a separate wrong against that person and is not permitted regardless.
With serious caution, and not as a source. Models fabricate hadith, invent citations and state rulings with unwarranted confidence. Speaking about the religion without knowledge is treated gravely in the sources, and publishing at scale multiplies the harm. AI can reasonably help with structure, drafting and language once you have verified content from reliable sources - but every citation, ruling and attribution needs checking against the actual source before publication.
State your tooling in your terms
Declaring in your service terms that you use AI tools with human editing and verification removes the disclosure question entirely. In practice most clients care about quality and turnaround rather than method, and being explicit protects the relationship.
Keep the human review genuine. Disclosure does not cover delivering unchecked output where accuracy matters.
Evidence used to explain the general principle. These references do not replace personal scholar review.
4 Sources & 1 Scholarly Opinions
Compare the general position and the details scholars usually check.
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