How should a question of halal or haram be raised and how should the answer look like?

Question

Is it correct for anyone to just post a narration or a holy vers which is related to the question and give a personal interpretation based on an internet search? I mean there are tons of hadithes and millions of opinions.

So should a question be not more specific, like, for example: Is it halal to do this and that according to the opinion of scholar X, whom I am trusting to be a skilled mujtahid. And shouldn't the answer look more like: "In the view of X this halal. I can show you clear evidence that this is really his opinion." and not like "there is a hadith, my interpretation is this, and that's why it is halal."

I mean ijtihad is nothing users should be doing here based on the limited amount of ahadith (narrations) or holy verses they know.

Or in other words: Isn't it the beser way to ask for a Fatwa?

Answer 1

I don't like the idea of restricting answers with the goal of making sure they are correct. Anyone can answer questions according to their own reasonable understanding and interpretation of Islamic sources. Questions often do not have consensus answers even among scholars. If someone is interested in answers from a particular viewpoint or scholar they should explicitly state that in their question. Otherwise when someone asks a question anyone can post an answer according to their own understanding of Islam and Islamic sources. If you think an answer is invalid or not good enough don't censor it, write a better one yourself!

Please keep in mind that as explained in the help center this is not a fatwa site. Like Wikipedia, this site makes no guarantee of validity. It does not offer professional (particularly fatwa) advice. Information provided on the site should be treated as if it came from a crowd of your friends.

Answer 2

Bismillah.

I'll give you my opinion on the matter since pretty much all the answers will be opinions because I believe there isn't a wrong answer to this question.

In my opinion, most questions that are asked on this site that can be somewhat related to the days of the Prophet (PBUH) are, or should be, answered with a citation of a hadith. In retrospect, there wouldn't be an opinionated answer from a certain scholar because, if something was present during the life of the Prophet (PBUH) and a hadith exists, then only that can be the correct answer. For example, a very broad question related to prayer, for instance the correct movements, was surely a question that was raised during the life of the Prophet (PBUH). Therefore, there wouldn't be "opinions" on the subject, and hence, a hadith would be cited to answer the question without the need to say, as you mentioned, "according to scholar X...". Thus, all opinions on the subject should be the same.

Other questions that may not have been exactly applicable during the days of the Prophet (PBUH) are a different matter, however, and relate more to the issue raised by your question. A quick and easy example might be fasting in countries where in the summer, the sun does not set for a couple of days, or when the sun doesn't rise in the winter: what to do? Clearly, since this type of question may not, or rather wasn't, applicable during the life of the Prophet (PBUH), and therefore no hadith would exist, then this is where opinions come in. As a result, a person asking a related question might start, and I agree with you, their question by saying: "according to scholar X...". These types of questions, from my experience, create many opinionated answers due to the fact that the issue was not raised during the life of the Prophet (PBUH).

So, all in all, it really becomes a question of whether the issue may have been raised during the life of the Prophet (PBUH), and hence a hadith exists, therefore, there really shouldn't be two opinions by scholars. Or on the contrary, the issue may not have been raised during the life of the Prophet (PBUH) in which case questions should ideally start by "according to scholar X...", as you mentioned, since many opinions could be present in the matter.

Again, this is just my opinion on the matter as there probably isn't a wrong answer to your question.