The AI engines (thats what I call them) are really super helpful. Artificial Intelligence means trying to replicate or dupicate human intelligence. Like the 'artificial heart' aka mechanical heart. Maybe they can also call it 'mechanical intelligence'.
Can AI be cleverer than human intelligence? I think it can. It is certainly super duper fast in "memory based-thinking". Thinking from memory. AI like ChatGpt can access terabytes of stored data from around the globe in microseconds. It presents what it has found plus it also summarises the data AND draws conclusions using its "memory-based thinking". However if the "memory-base" is incorrect or corrupted (for example religion based "history") then of course ChatGpt's conclusions are also flawed. Garbage in, garbage out. I have detected this a few times now.
I use AI engines everyday now. My favorite is ChatGpt because it is really quite easy to log on and it is fast.
And it allows you to frame your inquiry anyway you want. I always search for 'data'. The basic information. And then I prefer to draw my own conclusions from the data.
For example I asked ChatGpt a question 'List the companions or sahaba of the prophet who were aged below 15 years old in 620 AD (the year of the Isra and Miraj also known as the prophet's Night Journey). (Line 12 Malik ibn Sasaa was added separately). ChatGpt came up with the following data:
🕋 Companions Below 15 Years Old in 620 CE (Year of the Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj)
| # | Companion | Approx. Birth Year (CE) | Age in 620 CE | Birthplace | Relation to Prophet ﷺ | Later Role / Fame | Approx. Number of Ḥadīth Narrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās | 619 | ≈ 1 yr | Mecca | Cousin of the Prophet | Leading Qurʾān exegete, early scholar | ≈ 1,660 |
| 2 | ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr | 614 | ≈ 6 yrs | Mecca | Later wife of the Prophet | Top female scholar, jurist, and teacher | ≈ 2,210 – 3,000+ |
| 3 | Anas ibn Mālik | 612 | ≈ 8 yrs | Medina (Yathrib) | Served the Prophet 10 years | Among top 5 hadith narrators | ≈ 2,286 |
| 4 | ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr | 622 | Not yet born | Medina | Son of Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr (nephew of ʿĀʾishah) | Companion, early Muslim leader | ≈ 33 |
| 5 | ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar | 610 | ≈ 10 yrs | Mecca | Son of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb | Jurist of Medina, meticulous narrator | ≈ 2,630 |
| 6 | Zayd ibn Thābit | 611 | ≈ 9 yrs | Medina | Prophet’s scribe, Anṣārī | Compiled the Qurʾān under Abū Bakr & ʿUthmān | ≈ 90 |
| 7 | Usāmah ibn Zayd | 615 | ≈ 5 yrs | Mecca | Son of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (adopted son) | Led army to Syria at 17; beloved of the Prophet | ≈ 130 |
| 8 | ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar | 618 | ≈ 2 yrs | Abyssinia | Cousin (son of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib) | Companion, orator, noted for generosity | ≈ 20 |
| 9 | ʿAmr ibn Salimah al-Jarmī | ~620 | ≈ 0–1 yr | Tribe of Jarm (North Arabia) | Saw the Prophet as a child | Led tribal prayer at 7 years old | Few |
| 10 | Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī | 610 | ≈ 10 yrs | Medina | Anṣārī youth | Among top 10 hadith narrators | ≈ 1,170 |
| 11 | ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ | 607 | ≈ 13 yrs | Mecca | Meccan noble; converted 628 CE | Military commander; conqueror of Egypt | ≈ 40 |
| 12 | Mālik ibn Saʿsāʿa | ~590 | ≈ 30 yrs | Medina | Anṣārī companion | Main narrator of the Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj ḥadīth | 1 (major) |
For your curiosity I will discuss a little bit of this tabulation but at the end of this post.
I write books - until today. I publish online. And when you write books you will appreciate the amount of time that is needed to do the research that goes into what you write.
- Now ChatGpt came up with that tabulation above in seconds.
- Without ChatGpt a table like this would take me hours of online research and tabulation.
- Without the Internet, drawing up a table like this would take weeks.
This is where religion will face serious challenges. In normal religious study, a person will go to some institution and study religion for years. Any religion.
Then they may write an article or write a book about religion. That may take even more years. Then someone else may write another article or write another book discussing or debating what the first fellow wrote - which also may take months or years. So the pace is still very slow.
But now with the Internet and especially with AI, the speed of research and assembling information is in the milliseconds and microseconds.
This is where the "old old school" religious fellows are missing the boat (tertinggal sampan). They absolutely do not know how to handle these milliseconds and microseconds. They are still stuck at the speed of the camel caravans trudging across the desert.
Here is some observation only from that table above. Very brief.
Line 1 is Abdullah ibn Abbas. He was a year old baby in the year of the Isra Miraj which happened circa 620 AD. This means when the prophet died 12 years later in 632 AD, Abdullah ibn Abbas was 12 - 13 years old. Other reports indicate he was a year or two younger. Abdullah ibn Abbas would later narrate 1,660 hadith.
Line 12 is Malik ibn Sa'saa. Malik is known to have narrated only one hadith in his entire life. There are no other hadith attributed to Malik ibn Sasaa (according to ChatGpt).
And the only hadith that Malik ibn Sasaa narrated was a very long and very detailed hadith about the Isra Miraj or the Night Journey.
There are a few other narrations of hadith by other people about the Isra Miraj but they are all very brief. The hadith narrated by Malik ibn Sasaa is the most detailed, very long and comprehensive narration of the Isra Miraj
I gathered this from ChatGpt. You can ask ChatGpt anything. It is important that you know what to ask.
