Q: I am a female and went to a male naturopath and he checked my pulse which I thought he won't and felt really bad about it as a ghair mahram touched me. But now I really need treatment and haven't heard of a female naturopath. Is it okay for me to go to the male and is it fine if he touches my hand to check my pulse?
Q: My question is regarding the recent advancements in the computing world in “Artificial Intelligence”, specifically around Generative AI. Generative AI algorithms have advanced the field significantly where we can now generate text and media that is virtually indistinguishable from one created by humans. The AI is trained on large datasets of existing text and media. There are a growing number of software services offering these capabilities to businesses and consumers. While many of the use-cases are likely permissible when it comes to text generation, a growing number of impermissible applications will likely become available to the masses soon.
I will list some of the applications:
- generating audio: will allow generating any type of audio using any voice. Could be Quran-like verses from a renowned Qari, a fake conversation/dialog between public figures, or songs and music. Since these are generated by computer, the voice could be the emulation of a person who was not involved at all. Audio generation has quite a lot of harmful applications which could mislead people, given that it is human nature to trust voiceprints.
- generating text: enables consumers to generate prose in any style desired. Innocent applications are where we can use it to author content, summarize content, explain content, etc. The prose generated could be the emulation of anyone we desire. Therefore, harmful content could be something like generating fake verses of Quran, fake hadith, and worse.
- generating images/videos: enables users to generate images/videos just by providing a text prompt describing the scene/image desired in the output image/video. It may generate fake images, sow distrust, and increase immodesty significantly.
Note that all these generations are possible by a variety of input to the application (text-based prompts, image-/video-based prompts, sound-based, etc.).
I have some questions regarding the generation of content that would have been deemed impermissible if generated by a human:
1) Do the rulings of digital photography extend to photos generated by a computer through Artificial Intelligence? i.e. if one believes that capturing/drawing photos by hand or through camera is haram, should that belief carryover to computer-generated media? It seems like there’s a nuance here in who’s generating the content — human vs computer. Does that change the Sharee’e rulings of digital photography?
2) There’s a hukm regarding the purdah of a woman’s voice when speaking to a non-mahram, even when separated by a door/wall. Women are supposed to use harsher tones in those situations. Regarding generated audio, would the Sharee’e ruling of purdah apply here too? For example, if a female-emulated computer-generated voice is used in a maps navigation program, would that violate the principle of Purdah?
3) Until now, if anyone wanted to photograph me, they would require my presence. With the new technology, it may be possible to generate a person’s face that looks very close to mine. Would it be my responsibility to make sure nobody generates my image?
Q: How to deal with people who lie about you, tarnish your image, hurt you and deprived you of your basic rights. They constantly taunt you and pick faults in you? How to stay firm in faith when you see a liar and deceptive people to be successful in life while truthful and honest ones suffer?
Is continuously praising oneself and thinking low of others permissible in Islam?
Q: We are baaligh women, and our ears are not pierced yet. Now we wish to have our ears pierced, but we cannot find a single lady to do it for us. In this situation, can we get our ears pierced by a male?
Q: My neighbor brought a cat from somewhere. But they did not feed the cat properly. So my mother gives food to the cat. The children of the family abuses the cat to the point that the cat may die any time if it stays in that house. So can I take the cat from them and give it to someone else without their permission? They throw the cat here and there and hold it by its neck. The cat will not survive if kept with them.
Q: If a shop owner purchases items with murat (animate pictures) and/or female pictures on the packaging, sells these products and advertises them, will he be sinful?
If we should be covering these things, please can Hadhrat Mufti Saheb advise how.
Q: There is a practice of placing beetle traps in beehives in order to control the pest from inhabiting the beehive. The trap contains oil which is used to drown the beetles.
Is this allowed in order to control the pest?
Q: I bought a new house, the qiblah is slightly towards the right however the toilets face north also but straight.
Q: Husband and I are divorced. When it comes to the baby... who should he liase with regarding her wellbeing, visitation and her needs for the month? Should he contact my parents or should he contact me?
Q: If I ask someone to bring me water or to give me water, is it haraam for them to say no?