Clearly, most contemporary questions related to technology are concrete and have an impact on real-life events. They thus ought to take the form of concrete unprecedented cases ( naw?zil ), requiring thick description and deep and sophisticated analysis. When such inquiries do not meet these criteria then it signals the deficit in the knowledge of the jurisconsults. Many of the moral and ethical issues that gain public attention often sensationalize and exaggerate the spell-binding promise of technology such as the human genome project or artificial intelligence (AI). Often these elicit alarmist reactions from a variety of communities concerned with ethical and moral concerns. Yet, there is no denying that modern technoscience has altered our conceptions of human reality. In the domain of genetics, about which there has been extensive anxiety, molecular biology has already paved the way for the use of engineered stem-cells for remedial and enhancement purposes in medicines. And with the possibility of AI rapidly gaining a foothold in societies worldwide, the anxiety is that we might be entering a brand-new realm.

If humans unleashed the power of technology in the past, the challenge now is ?about containing its unleashed power? so that technology does not dominate us. It is widely acknowledged that there is a lag between the availability of technology and what can be called deep and ethical thinking about the application and uses of a technology. ?All too often, technology is out in front of the deep thinking we need about how it can be best applied,? wrote Eric J. Topol, a molecular medicine expert. And each technological advancement and its domestication we adapt to these technologies, sometimes in ways that we did not anticipate, for both good and bad purposes. So, the question arises: Does one require fatw?s in the domain of a technology that in itself was a moving target and in the process of unfolding? Does addressing rapid technological change require another genre of moral and ethical literature? Closely related to the generation of fatw?s is the doctrine of ijtih?d , the procedure of expending intellectual effort in scholarly research to assess moral and legal norms. In short, ijtih?d , is the benchmark of qualification to undertake interpretation based on principle of interpretation already established and adopted by the various law schools. This is uncontroversial.

Norms properly assessed and ascertained carry the epistemological status of reliable rational knowledge ( ?ann? ). In response to technological advancement, would it not be more conducive for Muslim jurists and ethicists to cultivate the doctrine of ijtih?d , and in doing so extensively refine it and develop greater methodological sophistication in its application? If this were to occur, a body of moral and ethical knowledge would be created that could be consulted when dealing with complex issues related to technology and its products. Prior to recruiting jurists and ethicists for the purpose of ijtih?d and making resources available for ijtih?d , it is vital that scholars acquire more than just an elementary understanding the topic under discussion, in this case technology. It will thus be fruitful to first provide a snapshot of how early Muslim thinkers thought about technology. Their views need not be seen as decisive, but rather serve an edifying purpose in a process of thought that had precedents. To put it differently, every act of interpretation also involves a measure in the making and shaping of a discursive tradition. Hence the need to connect with the past to demonstrate both continuity and discontinuity within the discursive tradition. Continuity will identify which life forms are sustained and developed in the light of the knowledge produced to sustain the tradition.

(excerpted from chapter 1).