From Prohibition to Architecture: Artificial Intelligence and the Extended Phenotype of Ribā in Financial Systems

Abstract

This theoretical working paper examines how interpretations of the prohibition of ribā may become embedded in financial products, governance institutions, documentation practices, and AI-assisted compliance systems. It develops a bounded extended-phenotype account of computational legibility as a possible selection pressure within Sharia governance. The paper does not offer transaction-specific determinations. It distinguishes institutional authority, empirical evidence, doctrinal analysis, and unvalidated predictions; preserves jurisprudential disagreement; and proposes falsifiers and a mixed-method research design. Specialist review in Islamic commercial law across more than one jurisprudential tradition remains necessary before submission to a specialist journal.