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• Islam: Should requests for rulings and/or fatawa be permitted?
• A higher standard for “fatwa” questions?

• Islam: Should requests for rulings and/or fatawa be permitted?
• A higher standard for “fatwa” questions?

In summary, despite us explicitly not being a fatwa site, we do feel that there's value in allowing fatwa questions. However, we have as so far failed to establish any sort of standard for how these fatwa questions should be framed in order to be constructive.

In summary, despite us explicitly not being a fatwa site, we do feel that there's value in allowing fatwa questions. However, we have as so far failed to establish any sort of standard for how these fatwa questions should be framed in order to be constructive.

• Islam: Should requests for rulings and/or fatawa be permitted?
• A higher standard for “fatwa” questions?

• Users posts a vague one-liner asking whether such-and-such is haram.
• One user posts a vague answer saying yes it's haram but provides no evidences.
• One user posts a fatwa that's already readily available on the Internet.
• One user posts a fatwa that's already readily available on the Internet.
• Many or all of these get flagged and deleted for very low quality or for plagiariasm and/or copy-paste.

And with the voting culture we have, these items (I refuse to call them answers) tend to get heavily upvoted based on agreement rather than on quality, which just turns the whole thread into a popularity contest rather than a constructive source of information.

Right now, fatwa questions are haphazard at best, often receiving little to no curation. They rarely demonstrate research effort, they are inconsistently tagged, they are not reliably voted on, and they more often than not end up being used as vehicles to push Truth rather than to advance the academic study of Islam.

A standard is needed for these questions. We do not want to be "that Islam content farm," we do not want to breed debate or sectarianism, and we definitely do not want to be a site which encourages current and future users to follow incorrect (or outright dangerous) rulings while under the mistaken impression that they're valid.

• Islam: Should requests for rulings and/or fatawa be permitted?
• A higher standard for “fatwa” questions?

• Users posts a vague one-liner asking whether such-and-such is haram.
• One user posts a vague answer saying yes it's haram but provides no evidences.
• One user posts a fatwa that's already readily available on the Internet.
• One user posts a fatwa that's already readily available on the Internet.
• Many or all of these get flagged and deleted for very low quality or for plagiariasm and/or copy-paste.

And with the voting culture we have, these items (I refuse to call them answers) tend to get heavily upvoted based on agreement rather than on quality, which just turns the whole thread into a popularity contest rather than a constructive source of information.

Right now, fatwa questions are haphazard at best, often receiving little to no curation. They rarely demonstrate research effort, they are inconsistently tagged, they are not reliably voted on, and they more often than not end up being used as vehicles to push Truth rather than to advance the academic study of Islam.

A standard is needed for these questions. We do not want to be "that Islam content farm," we do not want to breed debate or sectarianism, and we definitely do not want to be a site which encourages current and future users to follow incorrect (or outright dangerous) rulings while under the mistaken impression that they're valid.