The accelerated advancement of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence and social networks, has placed unprecedented ethical challenges before contemporary societies. Issues such as systematic violations of privacy, the spread of misinformation, and the transformation of the nature of human relationships have revealed the necessity of rethinking the ethical foundations governing science and technology. The main question of this research is: What capacities do the teachings of Imam Reza (A.S.), as a coherent Islamic intellectual system, have for analyzing and proposing solutions in confronting these emerging challenges?
This research, adopting a descriptive-analytical method and relying on original Islamic sources and contemporary comparative studies, seeks to answer this question. The course of the research is structured as follows: First, the foundational principles of the doctrine of Imam Reza (A.S.) regarding the connection between knowledge, ethics, and action are extracted and explained. Next, the central ethical challenges of the digital age -from privacy violations and algorithmic discrimination to the impacts of technology on the concept of justice and human relationships- are analyzed. In the final step, through a systematic comparison of these two realms, the guiding capacities of Razavi thought for an ethical engagement with technology are demonstrated.
The research findings confirm that the doctrine of Imam Reza (A.S.), by simultaneously emphasizing the inherent dignity of human beings, justice as the overarching social criterion, the responsibility of the scientist/scholar, and the connection of knowledge with righteous action, provides a comprehensive and practical framework for critiquing, regulating, and guiding the development of digital technologies. Consequently, this research emphasizes the necessity of discourse formation and the application of this paradigmatic model among scientific elites and technology policymakers.