(Islamic) counseling and agony-aunt

Question

_{(This has plagued me for a long time now)}

It's worries me to see that this site is condoning and catering questions like:

1. urgently need advices for a divorce. I don't know how to convince my parents!
2. how to practically unchain yourself from sins?
3. Is divorce the best solution for my problem
4. How to help husband change?

that are primarily seeking advice, under the guise of Islam.

Should this site be used as a, religious, agony aunt?

Answer 1

These question, way I see it, come under the category of religious/spiritual prescriptions/Plz email me teh codez.

The problem I see in allowing these type of questions, which can come under primarily opinion-based, is that less effort is put into constructing the core question and more is put into discussing and describing one's personal problems in order to draw advice (counseling) on those issues, and users as a religious duty, not seeing whether it is appropriate on this site, would advise them.

Such questions should be put on-hold and/or closed if the core Islam-related question, provided there is one, is quite trivial and/or doesn't reflect effort.^{Not being apathetic}

Answer 2

If I understand the other answers here and the way the site is currently operating, the community and mods are making an either/or decision:

• If a non-trivial, core Islam-related question can be discerned leave open
• If not close

I propose that the guidelines are changed, in the interests of more clearly steering the site away from the "(Islamic) counseling and agony-aunt" feel it appears to have.

These are the guidelines I propose:

• If a non-trivial, core Islam-related question can be discerned, and any personal details are not in your face, leave open

• If a non-trivial, core Islam-related question can be discerned, and personal details are in your face, close/edit/reopen (or just edit but don't leave them lying around as asked), downplaying or removing the personal aspects. As goldPseudo puts it:

  Any social problems abstracted out enough to ask "What should a Muslim do in this situation?" are probably fine.

  As a specific, this question contains a non-trivial, core Islam-related question but has far too much personal information (and angst) that should be edited out:

  

• If no non-trivial, core Islam-related question can be discerned, close

• if a counseling question looks anything like this, delete (or flag and ask a mod to delete it):

  

Answer 3

There is a fine line here. Most questions along these lines are intensely specific and require actual counselling. As such, they are closed (as far as I've seen at least; some may have slipped through the cracks). Some others can be made general, and those we leave open. After all, tazkiyah is a core part of Islam.