Challenges and the Repositioning of Islamic Religious Education Teachers in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Perspective from Islamic Epistemology

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, is reshaping how students access, produce, verify, and communicate information, raising questions about source authority, adab, values, and character formation in Islamic Religious Education (IRE). This study examines the challenges facing IRE teachers and proposes a repositioning of their roles from an Islamic epistemological perspective. A qualitative library research approach was employed, drawing on literature on Islamic education and epistemology, teacher ethics, UNESCO guidance on AI in education, and recent studies on AI and IRE. Sources were examined through content and conceptual analysis. The findings position AI as a supporting instrument subject to human epistemic oversight and identify teachers’ roles as knowledge curators, information validators, digital ethics mentors, learning designers, and exemplars of adab. AI outputs should be evaluated within the relationship among revelation, reason, experience, scholarly tradition, and technology. The study proposes the IRE teacher as an epistemic gatekeeper responsible for safeguarding information quality, guiding verification, and aligning technology use with Islamic educational aims. To support implementation, it introduces the Verifikasi model, comprising source verification, ethical use, reflection, integration of religious evidence, process orientation, human initiative, and accountability. The study contributes a conceptual basis and an implementation model for repositioning IRE teachers, emphasizing that AI integration should strengthen literacy, critical reasoning, and adab while preserving human responsibility in education.