Thinking in the age of AI : Why we need to trust our own minds again

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about thinking. Seriously, when did we start believing that we can’t write an email without AI’s help? When did making a presentation become something we supposedly “can’t do” without technology stepping in to save us?

It’s wild when you think about it. Humans have been communicating for thousands of years. We’ve written love letters, crafted speeches, and told stories long before there was a computer in sight. Yet here we are in 2025, being told that our natural abilities somehow aren’t good enough anymore.

The Quiet Erosion of Confidence

There’s something unsettling about the way AI tools are being marketed to us. It’s not just “here’s a helpful tool”. It’s more like “you clearly can’t handle this basic human task, so let us do it for you.” Need to respond to your boss? AI’s got you. Want to plan your kid’s birthday party? There’s an AI for that too.

This messaging is doing something to us, and I don’t think we’re paying enough attention to it. It’s creating this weird dependence where we start questioning our own capabilities. Like, did I really just spend 20 minutes overthinking whether to use AI to write a simple thank-you note?

The thing is, when we outsource our thinking to machines, we’re not just saving time; we’re giving up something fundamental about what makes us human.

What the Quran Says About Our Minds

As Muslims, this whole AI dependency thing hits differently when we remember what Allah (SWT) says about using our intellect. The Quran is pretty clear about this:

“And He is the One Who spread out the earth and placed firm mountains and rivers upon it, and created fruits of every kind in pairs.¹ He covers the day with night. Surely in this are signs for those who reflect.” Quran (13:3)

There are multiple verses in the Qur’an where Allah is literally telling us: use your mind, think, reason, understand. This isn’t optional. It is central to who we’re supposed to be as Muslims.

Islam puts the responsibility squarely on us to question, verify, and think critically rather than just accepting things blindly.

There’s this beautiful concept in the Quran where Allah repeatedly asks us to reflect on creation, to think about the signs around us. But if we’re constantly delegating our thinking to algorithms, when do we get the chance to actually ponder and reflect?

The Noise Problem

Okay, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the sheer amount of noise we’re dealing with. Between social media, news alerts, AI-generated content, and just the general chaos of modern life, it’s honestly hard to hear our own thoughts sometimes.

I’ve been wondering how do we even begin to cut through all this? Because I think part of the AI dependency comes from us feeling overwhelmed and just wanting something, anything, to make decisions easier.

Here’s what I’ve been trying (emphasis on trying because this is hard):

• Creating thinking spaces: I’ve started putting my phone away for sometime when I need to work through something important. Revolutionary, I know.
• Reading actual books: Not articles, not threads, but books that require sustained attention and thought. I have also started jotting down qoutes and my thoughts after I finish reading.
• Taking walks and doing daily chores without podcasts/audiobooks: Sometimes just cooking and letting my mind wander leads to the best insights.
• Journaling by hand: There’s something about writing by hand that forces me to slow down and really think through what I want to say.

Raising Kids Who Can Think

This AI thing becomes even more urgent when I think about the kids growing up right now. How do we raise children who trust their own minds when they’re surrounded by tools that promise to think for them?

I keep coming back to this: we need to teach kids that struggling with a problem, taking time to think through something, working through confusion are not bugs in the system, they’re features. This is how learning actually happens.

We need to show kids that AI can be a tool, but the uniquely human stuff like creativity, empathy, moral reasoning, spiritual insight- that’s irreplaceable. That’s the good stuff.

The Bias Problem

Here’s another thing that keeps me up at night: AI systems are only as good as the data they’re trained on. And guess what? That data is full of human biases, mistakes, and gaps. When we rely too heavily on these systems, we’re not getting objective truth. We are getting someone else’s (potentially flawed) perspective amplified.

The Quran calls us to be seekers of truth. But seeking truth requires being able to think critically about sources, question assumptions, and evaluate information. If we’re just accepting AI outputs without that critical evaluation, are we really seeking truth?

I’ve started asking myself these questions when I encounter AI-generated content:

• What assumptions might be built into this system?
• What perspectives might be missing?
• How can I verify this information from other sources?
• What would I think about this if I approached it fresh, without AI’s influence?

Building Our Critical Thinking Muscles

So how do we get better at this thinking thing? Like any muscle, we have to use it regularly or it atrophies.

Question everything: Start with small things. Why did the algorithm show you that particular post? What’s the underlying assumption in that AI-generated summary? Get comfortable with questioning.

Seek multiple perspectives: Before forming an opinion, especially on complex issues, try to find viewpoints that challenge your initial reaction. This is hard but so worth it.

Feed your mind well: The Quran talks about how rain nourishes plants to help them grow. What kind of mental “rain” are you giving yourself? Quality books? Thoughtful conversations? Deep articles? Or just a constant drip of shallow content?

Practice metacognition: This is just a fancy way of saying “think about your thinking.” Notice when you’re making assumptions, when you’re being lazy with your reasoning, when you’re accepting something just because it’s convenient.

Finding the Middle Path

Look, I’m not saying we should throw our laptops out the window and go back to typewriters. AI can be incredibly helpful for the right tasks like data processing, pattern recognition, handling routine work that frees us up for more meaningful stuff.

The key is being intentional about how we use it. Use AI to analyze a massive dataset? Great. Use AI to think through a complex moral decision? Maybe not so much.

I think about it like this: AI is like a very powerful calculator. Calculators are amazing for math, but if you use a calculator for every single addition problem, you lose the ability to do basic math in your head. Same principle applies here.

What Makes Us Human

At the end of the day, we have something AI doesn’t: consciousness, spiritual awareness, the ability to find meaning and purpose beyond just processing information. We can laugh at something absurd, feel moved by beauty, make moral choices based on principles rather than just probability.

The Quran reminds us: “And Allah has brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers when you knew nothing, and gave you hearing and sight and hearts that you might give thanks” (16:78).

We’ve been given these incredible faculties—not just to collect information, but to understand, to reflect, to grow in wisdom and gratitude. When we outsource too much of our thinking, we’re not using these gifts the way they were meant to be used.

A Personal Revolution

I’ve been calling this my own little “intellectual revolution.” It’s about reclaiming confidence in my own thinking, being more intentional about how I engage with technology, and remembering that the goal isn’t to compete with AI but to be fully, thoughtfully human.

Some days I do better than others. Some days I catch myself reaching for AI to handle something I could easily think through myself. But I’m trying to notice those moments and ask: what am I really avoiding here? Is it the effort of thinking? The discomfort of uncertainty? The time it takes to work through something slowly?

Because here’s what I’ve realized: those moments of effort, uncertainty, and slow thinking are where the good stuff happens. That’s where we grow. That’s where we become more than just consumers of information and start being creators of wisdom.

Moving Forward

The future isn’t about humans versus AI. It’s about humans who know how to think clearly, who can use technology as a tool without being controlled by it, who remember that our minds are gifts to be cultivated rather than burdens to be outsourced.

As Muslims, we have this beautiful tradition of reflection, contemplation, and seeking knowledge that goes back centuries. We don’t need to abandon it just because there’s a shiny new technology on the scene.

Instead, let’s use this moment as a wake-up call. Let’s teach our kids to think. Let’s practice thinking ourselves. Let’s cut through the noise and remember that the most important conversations happen not between us and our devices, but between us and our own minds and ultimately, between us and Allah.

Because at the end of the day, when we stand before our Creator, the question won’t be how efficiently we used AI. It’ll be how well we used the minds, the hearts, and the consciousness we were given.

And that’s something no algorithm can answer for us.