Where Should Automation Stop?
Scrolling through TikTok one night, I came across a video that made me pause. It showed a robot standing inside a mosque delivering the adhan (the Islamic call to prayer). My instant thought was “why are we automating certain things simply because.. we can?”
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSuxX1Bsg/
We live in an era where automation and AI are becoming a part of everything we do or use and in many areas automation is useful and necessary. However, not every human activity should be replaced by machines. Some practices carry emotional, cultural, and spiritual meaning that technology cannot replicate.
Adhan is one of those practices. It is and always has been performed by a “muezzin مؤذن) “a person who calls Muslims to prayer five times a day). The voice of the muezzin is not just an announcement of prayer time, it carries sincerity, devotion, and human presence. When someone hears the adhan echo from a mosque, it represents a living connection between faith, community, and tradition.
After seeing that video on TikTok, I decided to look into it further. I found that technology is already being introduced into some religious spaces. In Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, for example, authorities have introduced AI-powered robots designed to help answer religious questions and guide visitors in multiple languages. These robots are mainly intended to assist the millions of pilgrims who visit the mosque every year. (Gulf News, 2025).
In this case, technology is being used as a tool to help people rather than replace them. With pilgrims coming from many different countries, these systems can make information more accessible and easier to understand. However, this kind of assistance is very different from replacing a human role within a religious practice itself. That difference matters. Technology that supports and helps people can be useful, but when machines begin replacing human roles that carry emotional or spiritual meaning, the situation becomes more complicated.
The issue is not technology itself. Technology has always been part of religious life. Loudspeakers were once an invention that helped the adhan reach larger communities. Phone apps now remind people of prayer times or to make dua. These tools assist humans without replacing them. What feels different, and unsettling, is when machines begin replacing human roles that carry emotional and spiritual meaning. The adhan is not just sound, it is intention. This whole thing brings up a bigger question about automation. As AI keeps developing, we need to decide where to draw the line. Being faster or more efficient should not always be the most important thing. If we start automating everything just because we can, we might lose the human meaning behind certain practices.
A robot might be able to say the words of the adhan, but it cannot have the same sense of faith or sincerity behind it. The real challenge of the AI age is not building machines that can do everything humans do. The challenge is recognizing what should remain human.
