What is the Islamic rule about the creation of robots?

Question

Assalam Alaikum , nowadays my brother is undergoing for creation of robot of human shape(it's sure that nobody can create a human with all it features other than Allah). But somebody interpreted the robot manufacturing by just saying that "Allah doesn't like that ". What is the actual islamic rule regarding this? Can anybody explain with help of any proof? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

The major issue here actually is what @Ahmed pointed at creating something that resembles a living creature such as a human or an animal.

All fatwas I consulted confirm this and they clearly allow creating a robot if the resemblance was less due to the fact that for example a body part was missing.

Fatwa #20017 -in Arabic- on islamweb for example advices a Muslim to avoid creating a robot and giving it a human (or animal) form and says if such a machine or instrument (the fatwa uses the Arabic word آلة) looked like -for example- a human the ruling of creating a corpus or a statue would apply. Else it is clearly allowed to create or invent such a thing.
Nevertheless this fatwa also says that even if people might have created something which looks like a human to show their high knowledge and technological advance, we can clearly say/see that it doesn't reach Allahs creation by any means.

Fatwa #363832 -in Arabic- on islamweb adds a statement form the Kuwaiti fiqh encyclopedia (al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiya):
_{My own translation take it carefully}

وَقَدِ اتَّفَقَ الْفُقَهَاءُ عَلَى أَنَّ صَنْعَةَ التَّصَاوِيرِ الْمُجَسَّدَةِ لإِنْسَانٍ أَوْ حَيَوَانٍ: حَرَامٌ عَلَى فَاعِلِهَا، سَوَاءٌ أَكَانَتْ مِنْ حَجَرٍ أَمْ خَشَبٍ، أَمْ طِينٍ أَمْ غَيْرِ ذَلِكَ ... ، وَكَمَا يَحْرُمُ صُنْعُ هَذِهِ الأْشْيَاءِ، يَحْرُمُ بَيْعُهَا وَاقْتِنَاؤُهَا.
The scholars are in accordance that creating (forming) forms that represent a human being or animals is haram for those who do this, no matter if it was made of stone, wood or anything else ... and the same prohibition applies to selling it!

فَقَدْ وَرَدَ فِي الصَّحِيحَيْنِ مِنْ حَدِيثِ جَابِرِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ -رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا- أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُول: إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ حَرَّمَ بَيْعَ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْتَةِ وَالْخِنْزِيرِ وَالأْصْنَامِ.
As in the two sahihs is compiled from the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abduallah who has heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying, "Allah and His Apostle made illegal the trade of alcohol, dead animals, pigs and idols." (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim and in other hadith compilations)

The fatwa also addresses the topic of artificial body parts and considers them as allowed based on the hadith compiled by imam at-Tirmidhi:

"My nose was severed on the Day of Al-Kulab during Jahiliyyah. So I got a nose of silver which caused an infection for me, so the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) ordered me to get a node made of gold." (Jami' at-Tirmdihi)

It also quotes statement of sheikh ibn 'Othaymeen explaining what is necessary to not fall under creating something that looks like a human or animal:

• ... where the image does not have clear features, even though it has limbs, a head and neck, but there are no eyes or nose, there is nothing wrong with that, because this is not imitating the creation of Allaah.

• ... But as I said, if the image is not clear and if it does not have eyes or a nose or mouth or fingers, then it is not a complete image, and is not imitating the creation of Allaah, may He be glorified and exalted. (Source of both translations islamqa #72915)