Zetrix's Nur.AI set to lead global Shariah AI drive

Malaysian Reserve

2 days ago

by SHAUQI WAHAB
MALAYSIA must be a creator, not just a consumer, of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, using Maqasid Shariah as the foundation to answer religious queries, provide halal investment advice, and guide the Muslim community in line with authentic Islamic scholarship.
Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi framed the launch of Zetrix's Nur.AI as part of Malaysia's broader ambition to strengthen its role as a global leader in halal certification, Islamic finance and now Shariah-compliant AI.
'Make this platform the foundation for shaping public thinking; answering questions on what is halal and haram; providing guidance on zakat and 'faraid'; offering open advice on Shariah-compliant investments; and ultimately guiding society based on true and recognised Islamic scholarship,' he said today during the launch of Zetrix Nur.AI, the world's first Shariah-aligned large language model (LLM).
Ahmad Zahid envisioned Malaysia becoming a global reference centre for Shariah AI, integrating AI into Islamic education worldwide and applying AI to mosque administration, zakat management and Quranic instruction.
He called for collective commitment from the government, industry, educational institutions and religious bodies to ensure Nur.AI's success, framing it as both a national responsibility and an investment for the hereafter.
Meanwhile, Zetrix co-founder Datuk Fadzli Shah shared that the company is planning to position Nur.AI as the leader of global Shariah AI drive with immediate applications in legal, financial and religious contexts.
He stressed that affordability was a key priority, especially for Muslim-majority nations in the Global South, ensuring that the technology benefits the wider ummah without creating financial burdens.
'With the massive addressable market, over two billion Muslims around the world, the economics will work, and so that the AI will be sustainable and the development will continue,' he said at the official launching ceremony today.
He revealed that while Nur.AI is currently consumer-focused, Zetrix has already begun adapting its base LLM for professional use cases, particularly in the jurisprudence and legal fraternity across multiple countries, as well as in Islamic finance before expanding to broader financial sectors. These business-to-business (B2B) initiatives will be announced as partnerships mature.
Fadzli explained that regional rollout would be carefully phased, beginning with Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, to serve over 340 million people under the Shafie school of thought before expanding to other Islamic legal traditions.
Addressing concerns about governance and potential external influence, especially given Zetrix's collaboration with DeepSeek AI, Fadzli assured that Nur.AI remains an independent project with no state interference.
Fadzli clarified that Zetrix has implemented technical measures to remove pre-existing biases in the underlying model and reintroduce a Shariah-aligned framework.
'We have been able to remove the bias that was introduced and then to reintroduce into it the Shariah bias.
'Nur.AI remains as an independent project that will be able to serve its purpose and target for the Shariah alignment and Shariah-based LLM, so there is little to no threat of state intervention,' he said.
He added that the project remains open to partnerships with governments that share its mission.
Moving forward, Fadzli sees strong potential in integrating Zetrix's AI capabilities with its blockchain technology, positioning blockchain as the data layer and AI as the processing engine.
The company expects to announce further developments by year-end aimed at enhancing usability, increasing adoption and advancing cross-border collaboration.