Freedom in the west is a goal in and of itself that acts as a moral compass when judging tools and products. Islam values freedom, but it is not a end goal, nor is it a moral precept to base your ethics on. It’s important, and Islam values freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc., but not to the full maximizing extent that you see in western countries.
The five classical objectives of Sharia are:
protection of religion
protection of life
protection of intellect
protection of lineage
protection of property/wealth
Both in the community sense (laws) and the personal sense (halal/haram)
From an Islamic perspective, More Freedom does not always equal better protection of above. For example, freedom for sperm donations can harm lineage, where people don’t know who their fathers are and vice versa; this can cause potential scenarios where half-siblings marry without knowledge. As such, Sharia prioritizes other needs over freedom when a tension emerges between the two. In the same vein, the goals of FOSS and OSI are noble and can help society on many levels, but is not a direct objective for scholars. There are positive side effects for sure, but to label something as Haram or obligatory is a very tall order for scholars to achieve and requires strong precedent from the Qur’an and Sunnah.
For me personally as a Muslim Software Developer, I see this as part of my Ihsan (excellence) tool kit in my profession. We should be taking the lead to create ethical businesses that help societies and improve people’s lives. We should help our non-techie friends and family members to gain control in their digital space. And we should help build FOSS / OSI tools.
With that being said, please take my opinion as an opinion as I’m not educated as a scholar. Who knows though, I know of a few Mufti Software Engineers out there that could offer a professional opinion on this :)
Freedom in the west is a goal in and of itself that acts as a moral compass when judging tools and products. Islam values freedom, but it is not a end goal, nor is it a moral precept to base your ethics on. It’s important, and Islam values freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc., but not to the full maximizing extent that you see in western countries.
The five classical objectives of Sharia are:
Both in the community sense (laws) and the personal sense (halal/haram)
From an Islamic perspective, More Freedom does not always equal better protection of above. For example, freedom for sperm donations can harm lineage, where people don’t know who their fathers are and vice versa; this can cause potential scenarios where half-siblings marry without knowledge. As such, Sharia prioritizes other needs over freedom when a tension emerges between the two. In the same vein, the goals of FOSS and OSI are noble and can help society on many levels, but is not a direct objective for scholars. There are positive side effects for sure, but to label something as Haram or obligatory is a very tall order for scholars to achieve and requires strong precedent from the Qur’an and Sunnah.
For me personally as a Muslim Software Developer, I see this as part of my Ihsan (excellence) tool kit in my profession. We should be taking the lead to create ethical businesses that help societies and improve people’s lives. We should help our non-techie friends and family members to gain control in their digital space. And we should help build FOSS / OSI tools.
With that being said, please take my opinion as an opinion as I’m not educated as a scholar. Who knows though, I know of a few Mufti Software Engineers out there that could offer a professional opinion on this :)