IslamQA

Islamqa.info

Type of site	Salafi Legal/ Religious
Available in	Arabic, English, Farsi, Japanese, Chinese, Uighur, French, Spanish, Indonesian, German, Portuguese, Hindi, Russian, Urdu, Turkish and Bengali
Created by	Muhammad Al-Munajid
Website	http://islamqa.info
Alexa rank	4,388 ((As of June 2018))[1]
Commercial	No
Launched	1997
Current status	Active

IslamQA is a website providing information regarding Islam in accordance with the Salafi school of thought.^[2] It was founded by Muhammad Al-Munajjid and is the most popular Salafi website in the Arab-speaking world.^[3]

History

The service was one of the first online fatwa services, if not the first.^[4] The launching of IslamQA.info in 1997 by Muhammad Al-Munajjid marked the beginning of an attempt to answer questions according to the Salafi school's interpretation of the Quran and Hadith.^[4] The website states that "All questions and answers on this site have been prepared, approved, revised, edited, amended or annotated by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid, the supervisor of this site."^[5]

Contents

IslamQA is available in 16 languages, including English, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Turkish, German, Bangla, Chinese, Russian, French, and Spanish, the website provides fatawa covering basic tenets of faith, etiquette and morals, Islamic history, and Islamic politics.^[6]

The site describes itself in the following manner:

Islam Q&A is an academic, educational, da‘wah website which aims to offer advice and academic answers based on evidence from religious texts in an adequate and easy-to-understand manner... The website welcomes questions from everyone, Muslims and otherwise, about Islamic, psychological and social matters.^[7]

The site's vision is to be "an encyclopaedia about Islam".^[8] Its aims (as described on the website) are:

#To spread Islam and call people to it.

1. To spread Islamic knowledge and dispel ignorance among Muslims.
2. To respond to people’s needs by offering advice and answers based on evidence from religious texts.
3. To refute the specious arguments of doubters about Islam.
4. To advise people concerning day-to-day issues, by giving educational, academic advice about social and other matters.^[9]

Methodology

The site describes its methodology as such:

The website promotes the ‘aqeedah (beliefs) of Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaa‘ah and the followers of the righteous early generations of Islam (as-salaf as-saalih). It strives to ensure that the answers are based on evidence from the Holy Qur’an and the soundly-narrated (saheeh) prophetic Sunnah, and are taken from the writings of the scholars, including the imams of the four madhhabs, Imam Abu Haneefah, Imam Maalik, Imam ash-Shaafa‘i and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, as well as other earlier and later scholars, and from the statements of fiqh councils and seekers of knowledge who conduct research in various Islamic specialties. The website avoids getting involved in issues that are of no benefit, such as empty arguments, trading insults and fruitless debates.^[10]

Traffic

According to Alexa Internet in June 2013, Islamqa.info was ranked #12,038 in the world with a bounce rate of roughly 75% (i.e., 75% of visits consist of only one pageview) and search engines accounting for 35% of visits.^[11] In July 2015, Islamqa.info was ranked #6,787 in the world with a bounce rate of roughly 69.9% and search engines accounting for 46.7% of visits.^[12] In 2015, Alexa lists the site as the most popular on the topic of Islam.^[13]

Fatwas in the media

The fatwas on the website have been noted in news sources.^[14][15]

Women

The fact-checking website Punditfact mentioned Al-Munajjid's justification for why women should not drive, as published on IslamQA.info, when deciding the factual accuracy of the claim that Saudi Arabia was the only Muslim-majority nation that did not allow women to drive.^[14] The fatwa was quoted saying: "It is well known that (driving) leads to evil consequences which are well known to those who promote it, such as being alone with a non-mahram (marriageable) woman, unveiling, reckless mixing with men, and committing haraam (sinful) actions because of which these things were forbidden."^[14][16] The article has been removed from the website. The ban on driving in Saudi Arabia has been lifted.^[17]

Slavery

One of IslamQA's fatwas on slavery — specifically of men having sex with female slaves — has been noted in the media as one of many similar fatwas published by Islamic scholars on the role of women in Islam. The fatwa was quoted stating that a Muslim wife "has no right to object to her husband owning female slaves or to his having intercourse with them [...] The scholars are unanimous in this assessment, and no one is permitted to view this act as forbidden, or to forbid it. Whoever does so, is a sinner, and is acting against the consensus of the scholars."^[18][19]

Other fatwas

Al-Munajjid published a fatwa on homosexuality,^[20] which he called "one of the greatest crimes, the worst of sins and the most abhorrent of deeds"^[21].

Controversy in Saudi Arabia

The website was banned in Saudi Arabia because it was issuing independent fatwas. In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's Council of Senior Scholars has sole responsibility for issuing fatwas.^[22] The Council was granted this exclusive authority to issue fatwas by a royal edict issued in August 2010 (while restrictions had been in place since 2005, they were seldom enforced); this move was described by Christopher Boucek as "the latest example of how the state is working to assert its primacy over the country’s religious establishment."^[23]

References

External links

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