Privacy, Surveillance, and Human Freedom in the Digital Age: A Critical Analysis in the Light of Islamic Teachings ڈیجیٹل دور میں پرائیویسی، نگرانی اور انسانی آزادی: اسلامی تعلیمات کی روشنی میں ایک تنقیدی جائزہ

الملخص

This research article critically examines the intersection of privacy, surveillance, and human freedom in the digital age through the lens of Islamic teachings. The rapid expansion of digital technologies -- social media platforms, artificial intelligence, biometric systems, and mass data collection -- has created unprecedented mechanisms of state and corporate surveillance, raising serious ethical and legal concerns regarding individual privacy and personal liberty. Islam, as a comprehensive way of life, established a detailed jurisprudential framework for the protection of privacy fourteen centuries ago, embodied in Qur'anic injunctions against tajassus (spying), ghibah (backbiting), and unauthorized entry into private dwellings, alongside prophetic traditions safeguarding the sanctity of the individual. Employing a qualitative, analytical-critical methodology and drawing on primary Qur'anic and Hadith sources together with classical and contemporary juristic literature, this study evaluates contemporary surveillance practices against Islamic ethical-legal standards. It argues that while Islam permits limited, accountable surveillance for the protection of public interest and prevention of harm, it categorically prohibits unwarranted intrusion into private life. The study concludes that Islamic principles of proportionality, consent, and respect for human dignity offer a coherent ethical framework capable of informing contemporary digital-privacy legislation and safeguarding human freedom against the excesses of surveillance capitalism and the surveillance state.