THE POTENTIAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN THE JUDGMENT PROCESS OF CRIMINAL OFFENSE TRIALS: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS FROM THE LENS OF FIQH

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the rapidly advancing technological innovations across various sectors, including the legal domain. Although its application in the context of the Syariah Court has not been widely discussed, AI holds significant potential to support the judicial process. This article aims to examine the use of AI in judicial decision-making within the Syariah Court from the perspective of fiqh. The study adopts a document content analysis approach as the primary method to identify relevant Shariah principles and explore how these principles can be applied within modern technologies. The findings indicate that although AI does not fulfill the criteria to be recognized as an entity with full legal capacity under Shariah (ahliyyah), it can still function as a legitimate supportive tool in the judicial process. Fiqh principles such as al-aslu fi al-ashyā’ al-ibāhah (the original ruling on things is permissibility) provide justification that AI may be accepted, as long as it aids in upholding justice and does not contradict Shariah principles. The author also proposes that further research on the harmonization between modern technologies like AI and Islamic legal frameworks should be expanded as a field of interdisciplinary integration, to ensure that the concept of dualism, which restricts both fields, does not become a justification for the stagnation of the Syariah legal system in the future.