Consciousness and the Human Soul

Could artificial intelligence ever come alive? In other words, could it ever become self-aware or gain consciousness?

Before we can answer this question, we must first define consciousness or what it means to be self-aware. For me at least, being self-aware means that, firstly, I am able to acknowledge my surroundings and view them from a unique perception and self that does not belong to anyone else and, secondly, that I have a mind of my own in which I can conjure thoughts and imaginations out of seemingly nothing. These are aspects of what constitutes the self, and every human being has a self that inhabits and is able to control and direct their bodies in this world.

Now, if you were to cut open a human body, you would not find this “self” anywhere within it. It is not an organ, nor a clump of tissues or cells. It or its source exists beyond this plane of existence, in the realm of the unseen. However, through Islam we know that this self is known as the “soul” and that it has been made to inhabit the body for the short period of time that we occupy this world. How and where it exists in the body, we do not know for certain, but if I were to guess, I would probably assume the heart.

Artificial Intelligence Has No Soul

Unless this soul which imparts or constitutes this sense of self-awareness is somehow reproduced, artificial intelligence will always remain artificial and obsolete, an empty vessel that will never gain consciousness. And forget reproducing it, we don’t even know how consciousness works to begin with. Like, how are we able to perceive reality the way that we do? How is this kind of existence even possible? We do not even know the ABCs of how a being is able to think and perceive reality around it. The power and ultimate knowledge of life rests only with Allah, and it is He who possesses all the secrets of the universe. No one can create a soul except Allah. As such, AI will never be alive in even the remotest sense of the word.

Let me use an example to illustrate this. Think of the colour blue. Now imagine if, years from now, the most sophisticated AI was fed all the data available in the universe about the colour blue. It would know thousands of times more than you about this colour – things such as its physical and quantum properties, its importance in various art-related fields, information pertaining to its shades and wavelengths, etc. However, never will it be able to appreciate and acknowledge the colour blue the way humans do. That sense of perception and feeling will always be absent, and this is what determines what is alive and what isn’t.

In short, Allah created our physical bodies as a vessel, and He also created our souls. The soul was then inserted into the body. AI, on the other hand, is nothing more than an empty vessel and will therefore never be alive.

Making AI as Life-Like as Possible

However, transhumanists will try their best to convince people that artificial intelligence can gain consciousness and be alive. They will attempt this by making AI as real and as life-like as possible, attempting to compete with the creation of Allah. We’ve previously discussed the idea of AI androids coated in artificially generated skin (perhaps through genetic technologies), made to look indistinguishable from real human beings but with physical dimensions and features that make them extremely attractive, but these are just the aesthetic features. AI will also improve in terms of communication and interaction, in that it will become impossible to know if one is talking to a human or an AI.

Yes, it’s entirely possible that a sufficiently advanced AI is able to converse in an extremely complex manner, with many great subtleties, and the ability to artificially mimic emotions, to the extent that humans will be fooled into thinking they are the real deal and that they have a real soul. This can lead to Dajjalic technologies such as creating life-like AIs of loved ones that have passed away, that look just like them, that are fed enough data to mimic them and interact like them, and are sold as the resurrected dead that can act as a means of therapy and consolation for those in grief and reunite them with the recently deceased. If something like this were ever to occur, it would truly be a mockery of life.

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The Absence of Physical Perception

A deeper discussion of what consciousness really is can help elucidate why AI will never be alive. Our physical reality is made up of various planes of perceptions appreciable through the brain.

If you’re reading this on a screen, that means that you have been blessed with sight, i.e., your eyes receive light and your brain is able to interpret that as a meaningful image. An average human possesses five senses that allows them to perceive the reality around them through their brain. However, imagine a human being who is blind. An entire sense of perception is absent for them. And it is not that someone who is born blind sees black or that they see darkness. They see “nothing,” i.e., the sense of sight is absent from their existence. It’s similar to how you cannot see from your elbow.

This person can learn everything there is to know about sight and hear detailed descriptions about what things look like. However, this will not allow them to truly appreciate sight in the way that humans who possess sight do. It is an entire plane of existence that is absent from their perception and sense of awareness. Those who have the ability of sight should appreciate what a great blessing it is. Readers may have made the connection between this comparison and the comparison between an AI that cannot perceive reality and existence and humans that can.

Now, imagine a human that is born blind and deaf. Their world will consist of fewer perceptions of the world around us, but they will still learn to communicate. Now imagine someone who is born blind, deaf, and mute – with even fewer perceptions that are appreciable. Now, imagine someone who is not only born blind, deaf, and mute, they also cannot feel any pain or sensations through the skin, are paralyzed in place, and none of their muscles work. They cannot see, or hear, or taste, or feel, or do anything. Yet, despite the absence of all of these senses of perception, they will still have a consciousness, and they will still have a form of existence that makes them alive. We cannot even begin to imagine what such a person’s thoughts will be like, yet they will possess them nonetheless. They may not consist of visual or auditory imaginations, but there will be something in that sea of seeming nothingness that is, ironically enough, beyond our comprehension.

Just like it is impossible to appreciate a dimension of perception that one does not possess, it is similarly impossible to appreciate the absence of a dimension of perception that one DOES possess.

What Is Perceived in the Absence of Physical Perception?

However, we must bear in mind that these physical senses are not the only things that make up all of perception, for there exist sensations beyond this plane of physical reality, perceptions that are frequently mentioned in the Qur’an. For example, the heart is often referred to as an organ that can sense the light of guidance from Allah, and a veil is placed on their hearts of those who reject this guidance, causing them to steep deeper and deeper into misguidance:

[Therefore,] Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing. And over their eyes, there is a veil. Thus for them there is a great torment [awaiting in the Hereafter]. (Qur’an, 2:7)

Yet still your hearts hardened after [all] this, and they became like stones, or even harder; for assuredly there are some stones from which rivers burst forth! And, indeed, some of them split asunder, so that water issues from them! And some of them fall down in fear of Allah! And never is Allah at all heedless of what you do. (Qur’an, 2:74)

So have they [who deny faith] not journeyed through the lands [and seen enough of such ends, so as] to have [their] hearts [awakened] to understand with [them], and [their] ears [opened so that] they [may] truly hear with [them]? For it is not the eyes that become blind but the hearts within the breasts that go blind. (Qur’an, 22:46)

Evidently, the heart is an organ that can sense the metaphysical reality, and the more burdened the soul is by worldly restraints, such as strong attachments to the distractions and illusions of this temporary world, the weaker their heart will become in perceiving that metaphysical reality.

And there are many examples of how blocking out the perceptions of this world allows one to elevate their consciousness. For instance, have you ever found yourself closing your eyes to focus on something when surrounded by a lot of noise and distractions? Doesn’t blocking out those distractions allow you to perceive your thoughts more clearly?

Or what about the phenomenon of sleeping, where the brain blocks out all external sensations, thereby allowing you to become temporarily detached and experience a metaphysical reality, where dreams and visions emerge, and it is worldly sensations such as the sound of an alarm clock that snaps one back to this reality.

There is so much of the metaphysical world, be it angels or jinn, that we are unable to perceive due the limitations placed on our soul and the obscurity caused by this world. Think about when death will occur, and the soul is freed from the body, and how it will be opened up to whole new worlds of sensations and perceptions that were previously unknown to it. It will be like new sense-organs coming into existence, like someone born blind suddenly gaining sight; or someone born deaf hearing for the very first time. The experience and form of consciousness for us who are alive, is as of yet, incomprehensible.

Think of the Day of Judgement, when things will occur in ways that we cannot fully comprehend right now, the world of jannah and jahannam where humans will be re-created in forms and perceive in ways that will be far more exaggerated than what we experience now. For example, the punishment of hell will far exceed even the worst forms of torture that can be endured in this life, and the reward of jannah will far exceed even the greatest pleasures that can be felt in this life.

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The Purpose of Life Is to Perceive the Signs of Allah and to Worship Him

If existence can be described as the perception and appreciation of something, then we cannot comprehend that which can be appreciated in the presence of nothing. However, that is where this statement is flawed, because there is no such thing as “nothingness,” as even if nothing else is present, there is still the presence of the Ever-Present and the All-Encompassing, Most Compassionate, Most High.

Everyone living being on the face of the earth is perishing; And the divine Countenance of your Lord’s Being remains, supreme in majesty, all bounteous in favor. (Qur’an, 55:26–27)

Allah creates a soul, and He allows it to perceive as much as He Wills. In this world, the purpose of perception is to recognize the signs of our Lord, to perceive Him through those signs and, as a result, appreciate them and worship Him and glorify Him. That is why we have been created. And in the next life, perceptions will serve the purpose of punishment and reward. And the less attached we are to this world, the more we are able to appreciate and understand His signs.

For very truly, We created man [out of earth]. Thus We know [with certainty] all that whispers within his [very] soul. For We are nearer to [each] one than [even] the jugular vein. (Qur’an, 50:16)

And [know that] I have not created [either] jinn or human beings [for any other end] but to [know and] worship Me [alone]. (Qur’an, 51:56)

The conclusion, thus far, is that AI will never possess a soul and that it will therefore never come to life.

However…

AI Combined with Magic and Satanism?

There are satanic groups in this world who engage in the most evil and depraved acts imaginable. Many of them are super wealthy corporate political transhumanist elites who are hell-bent on taking over the world via the most violent and evil means possible. More often than not, they are also Jewish – just an interesting observation I thought I should add mention of. There is no official name for this group, but some do refer to it as the “Illuminati” or those trying to create a satanic “New World Order.”

They own the biggest corporations and governments in the world, and they are involved in the most heinous acts possible, e.g., just look at the Epstein child sex trafficking case, with influential names like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Alan Dershowitz being implicated, and Israel is a key central country in the existence and workings of this group. They also control media and entertainment industries, and with the sheer level of outright blasphemous and satanic content they’ve produced, it’s impossible to think that they are not outright devil worshippers.

But why am I talking about devil worshipping satanic elites in an article about AI coming to life?

Because there is no doubt in my mind that in their quest for power, these evil elites are also actively trying to contact and make deals with actual devils, condemning their souls to the fire for some empty promises of power and riches. They dehumanize themselves via committing the worst forms of blasphemy and perpetrating the most depraved, filthy, and evil acts in the name of the devil, earning nothing but eternal damnation in the next life with no chance of redemption.

Like [the strikingly strange instance of] Satan. Behold! He says to man: Disbelieve! Then when he disbelieves: [Satan] says: Indeed, I am free of you! Indeed, I fear God, Lord of [All] the Worlds. (Qur’an, 59:16)

Is it not conceivable that these elites will try and incorporate AI robots into their satanic rituals, in the hope that a devil might take control of it? With the level of interest that these devil-worshipping elites have in black magic, the occult, and harnessing the power of demonic entities, would that really be so surprising? I mean, these people are so stupid and depraved that they worship literal devils. It’s possible they’ve probably already tried it.

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The Golden Calf and Modern-Day Magicians

For the sake of argument, even if they were able to somehow get a devil or even a jinn to control the AI robot, so that they could fool people into believing they had actually created consciousness, it would be nothing but a lie, one they wouldn’t be able to reliably replicate or ever truly control. Let’s be honest, if these stupid morons did ever end up succeeding in getting a devil or jinn to occupy an AI robot body, they’d either be brutally massacred by it immediately after denouncing their faith in Allah, or they would become its slaves, used by it to make people worship it as mushriks. Recall the incident of Samiri and the golden calf.

[Allah said to Musa when he arrived at Mount Tur]: What has made you hasten from your people, O Musa? He said: They are close upon my footsteps. And I have hastened to You, my Lord, that You may be pleased. He said: Then [know]: We have already tried your people after you [departed], and the Samiri has led them astray. So Musa returned to his people wrathful and sorrowful. He said: O my people! Did your Lord not promise you an excellent promise? Was the duration [of my absence] too long for you? Or did you desire for the great wrath of your Lord to befall you, such that you failed [your] promise to me [to worship Allah alone]? They said: We did not fail your promise of our own accord. Rather, we were loaded with burdens from the [golden] ornaments of the [Egyptian] people. So we hurled them [into a furnace of fire] — and thus did the Samiri cast [into it what he had. So we followed him]. Then he brought forth for them [the image of] a [Golden] Calf — a mere [spiritless] body [that] with [the wind made the sound of] a low. And they said [to each other]: This is your god and the god of Musa. Yet he has forgotten [it]. Could they not, then, see that it could not return a [single] word to them. Nor did it hold for them any [power of] harm or benefit? And truly Harun had told them before [Musa’s return]: O my people! You are only being tried by [Allah through] this [idol]. For, indeed, your Lord is [none but] the All-Merciful. Thus shall you follow me [in worshipping Allah] alone and obey my command [in this]! They said: Never shall we give up our devotion to it until Musa returns to us. Musa seized his brother and said: O Harun! What prevented you when you saw them going astray from following after me? Did you dare disobey my command! He said: O son of my mother! Seize me not by my beard nor by my head! I feared that you would say: You have caused division among the Banu Isra’il, and you did not observe my word. Musa said: What then were you seeking to do, O Samiri? He said: I perceived what they did not perceive. So I grasped a handful [of dust] from the trace of the messenger, and I cast it [into the molten gold] — and thus did my soul tempt me! He said: Begone, then! For it is for you, in this life, to say: Untouchable! And, indeed, for you there is an appointed time [of punishment in the Hereafter] that you shall never miss! Moreover, look to your god, [O Samiri], to which you remained devout! Most surely, we shall burn it. Then, most surely, shall we [pulverize and] scatter it in the sea — scatter it utterly. Indeed, your God, [O Banu Isra’il,] is the only God — the One besides whom there is no other god. He has encompassed all things in knowledge. (Qur’an, 20:83–98)

Is it also not conceivable that intricate fraudsters or evil modern day magicians may try something like this with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, mocking life in a similar manner, infusing vile occult magic or trickery with satanic technology?

Even then, the conclusion remains the same. Such mimicries and mockeries will also not mean that AI has, by any means whatsoever, somehow come to life. The power to create life belongs solely with Allah, and these transhumanists may die trying, but they will certainly never be able to create even so much as a fly.

O humankind! A parable is [here] set forth. So listen to it. Indeed, those [beings] whom you call upon apart from Allah can never create [so much as] a fly, even if they were [all] to come together for that [purpose]. Rather, if a fly were to rob them of [even a mere speck of] anything, never could they even retrieve it from it. Most feeble are the seeker and the sought! (Qur’an, 22:73)

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