Can Artificial Intelligence Educate? Rethinking Ta'lim, Tarbiyah, and Ta'dib in the Generative AI Era

Abstrak

Recent developments in information technology, particularly Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), have triggered a fundamental disruption in the architecture of higher education globally. This transformation not only revolutionizes how knowledge is produced, accessed, interpreted, and communicated in academic environments, but also challenges philosophical presuppositions regarding the nature of learning itself. On one hand, the educational ecosystem benefits immensely through cognitive efficiency, limitless personalized learning, and instant data accessibility. However, in the context of Islamic educational philosophy, this algorithmic mutation invites a crucial ontological and epistemological question: Can artificial intelligence entities intrinsically 'educate,' or do they merely function as channels for information transmission and advanced data processing? This research report is structured to critically examine the limits of GenAI's capabilities and authority by retracing three main conceptual foundations in Islamic education discourse: ta'lim (teaching and knowledge transmission), tarbiyah (holistic human formation, nurturing, and care), and ta'dib (instillation of manners, ethics, and morality). Using a conceptual-philosophical approach and a comprehensive critical literature analysis, this study draws a strict line of demarcation between the mechanical agency of machines and the moral agency of human educators. The central argument explored asserts that although GenAI harbors revolutionary potential to elevate the ta'lim dimension through its stunning instructional and cognitive functions, education in the Islamic scholarly tradition definitively rejects the reduction of maturation to a mere exchange of bits and bytes. The tarbiyah dimension requires intense emotional involvement, living examples (uswatun hasanah), and spiritual growth that machines cannot simulate. Furthermore, the ta'dib dimension mandates the presence of moral authority, absolute ethical responsibility, and pure human agency that cannot and must not be delegated to non-conscious computational systems. Based on these thoughts, this report formulates a radically human-centered AI utilization framework for the Islamic education ecosystem. This framework restores AI solely as a technical pedagogical instrument (wasilah), while reaffirming the existential centrality of human educators as the highest moral authorities in guiding future generations.