From Algocracy to Ethical Stewardship: Islamic Ethics and the Moral Reconstruction of Algorithmic Governance

Purpose:
The rapid diffusion of algorithmic systems into public decision-making has fundamentally reshaped governance by reallocating moral and cognitive authority from human agents to automated systems. While algorithmic governance promises efficiency and neutrality, it simultaneously generates profound ethical concerns related to legitimacy, justice, accountability, and human responsibility. This study aims to reconstruct the ethical foundations of algorithmic governance through the lens of Islamic ethical philosophy.

Methodology:
The research employs a qualitative content analysis of primary Islamic sources, including selected Quranic verses and hadiths. Through systematic coding and thematic interpretation, core ethical principles relevant to governance and decision-making are extracted and analytically mapped onto contemporary challenges of algorithmic governance.

Findings:
The analysis identifies nine interrelated ethical principles—autonomy, dignity, justice, trust, honesty, caution, commitment, benevolence, and non-invasiveness—that together constitute a coherent moral framework for guiding algorithmic decision-making. These principles emphasize human moral agency, responsibility, and restraint, challenging purely technocratic or efficiency-driven models of governance.

Contribution:
The study demonstrates that Islamic ethics provides both a transcendental normative foundation and an applied moral logic capable of addressing ethical deficits in algorithmic governance. By conceptualizing algorithms as instruments of moral agency rather than substitutes for it, the article advances the notion of ethical stewardship as a corrective governance paradigm.