Islam Q&A is an

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

ic da‘wah website that offers answers to questions about

based on the interpretations of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

and

Sunnah In Islam, , also spelled ( ar, سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed ...

(including

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

) literature by its founder and its superviser Muhammad Al-Munajjid, an adherent of the

Salafi movement The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generat ...

History

The service was one of the first online ''

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...

'' services, if not the first. The launching of IslamQA.info in 1997 by Muhammad Al-Munajjid marked the beginning of an attempt to answer questions according to the Sunni interpretation of the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...

and

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

. 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."

Popularity

According to the website Similarweb, islamqa.info had 10.1 million visits in January 2022, down from 13.66 million visits in March 2021, similar to 10 million visits per month in October and November 2020. Similarweb ranked islamqa 205th in the world in the category of "Community and Society > Faith and Beliefs" websites in January 2022, down from sixth in the world in the category in March 2021. While it was the highest ranking Islamic website in March 2021, as of January 2022 it ranks behind Islamweb.net at 17.2 million visits. Alexa rated it as the 8157th most popular website globally, 3 March 2022; 7,612th in "global engagement", 15 March 2022.

IslamQA is available in 16 languages, including English, Arabic,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, Turkish, German,

Bangla Bangla (Bengali: বাংলা) may refer to: *Bengali language, an eastern Indo-Aryan language *The endonym of Bengal, a geographical and ethno-linguistic region in South Asia *''Bangla-'', a prefix indicating Bangladesh Businesses and organ ...

, Chinese, Russian, French, and Spanish, the website provides fatawa covering basic tenets of faith, etiquette and morals, Islamic history, and Islamic politics. The site describes itself in the following manner: The site's vision is to be "an encyclopaedia about Islam". Its aims (as described on the website) are:

Methodology

The site describes its methodology as such:

Controversy in Saudi Arabia

The website was banned in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

because it was issuing independent ''fatwas''. In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's Council of Senior Scholars has sole responsibility for issuing ''fatwas''. 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."Christopher Boucek
"Saudi Fatwa Restrictions and the State-Clerical Relationship,"
''

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded i ...

'', October 27, 2010 (accessed November 18, 2013).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:IslamQA.info Islamic political websites Internet properties established in 1997 Fatwas Saudi Arabian websites Salafi movement Multilingual websites