Trust in AI answers: sources, madhhab coverage, and fatwa reliability

Category: Questions & membership Priority: P1 Area: ai-answers Reports: 7 Status: Open

Summary

Users — mostly Arabic-speaking — keep asking whether Qaf's answers are religiously sound: are the sources from Ahl al-Sunnah books, is the app free of bid'ah, which scholars and books it relies on, how often the Shamela-based database is updated, and whether answers can be trusted for fatwas or must be verified with a scholar. The most detailed thread (Amar Nasir) is effectively a 10-question due-diligence questionnaire covering hadith verification, scholarly review, hallucination rates, and handling of scholarly disagreement; Abdellatif's answers establish the current official position: all sources come from al-Maktaba al-Shamela via app.turath.io (unmodified, last updated ~4 months ago), there is no published error/hallucination benchmark yet, and Qaf is a research aid — not an independent religious authority and not a substitute for a qualified mufti. A promoter also asks for proof the AI does not produce "fake fatwas" before his influencers will promote it (unanswered), and a Vienna developer asks how deeply the madhhahib are covered while offering Hanafi/Turkish help. This theme is core to adoption; a public sources/reliability FAQ page would answer most of these threads at once.

What users say

Ali Mohamed alialsalahi553@gmail.com — 2026-08-20, Arabic, 1a01e94221577a5a (replied)

Asks whether Qaf's references and sources come from the books of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah. Abdellatif confirmed, noting they use al-Maktaba al-Shamela.

هل المراجع والمصادر من كتب أهل السنة والجماعة

Are the references and sources from the books of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah?

عبدالوهاب غراب (Abdulwahhab Ghurab) bdalwhabghrab218@gmail.com — 2026-08-18, Arabic, 1a016d421ba261fe (NO reply)

Asks whether the app is religiously sound and free of innovations (bid'ah) or superstitions. Still unanswered.

سلام عليكم..هل هذا البرنامج صحيح ..لايدخل فيه بدع او تخاريف

Peace be upon you.. is this app sound.. with no innovations (bid'ah) or superstitions in it?

Amar Nasir (عمار ناصر) am2004arnasir@gmail.com — 2026-08-16, Arabic, 1a00a77c6326a90c (replied)

Subject: "طلب توضيح صريح حول موثوقية Qaf في البحث الإسلامي والفتاوى" (request for a frank clarification of Qaf's reliability for Islamic research and fatwas). Ten numbered questions: sources and whether scholars reviewed them, hadith verification mechanics, suitability for academic research, fatwa reliability, handling of madhhab disagreement and non-ijma' issues, scholarly evaluation, hallucination/error rate, behavior when it doesn't know, and what "trusted Islamic knowledge" means. In a follow-up he proposed — and Abdellatif confirmed verbatim — the official framing: Qaf is a research/source-access tool, not an independent shar'i reference, and its output should not be relied on without checking original sources, especially in fiqh and hadith.

هل تنصحون المستخدم باتباع إجابة Qaf في الفتوى، أم يجب عليه دائمًا التحقق منها مع عالم أو جهة إفتاء مؤهلة؟

Do you advise users to follow Qaf's answer for a fatwa, or must they always verify it with a qualified scholar or fatwa authority?

Omar Shah omarshah29@hotmail.com — 2026-08-07, English, 19fdcacc9a4a0e9a (replied)

Amid bug reports (see below), asks how often the Islamic books/sources database is updated relative to Shamela, and where to verify the database's authenticity. Abdellatif: not updated in 4 months, likely no update for another ~6 months, data comes from app.turath.io, long-term goal is to expand beyond Shamela. Omar later called Qaf "the best ai that gives the most authentic, comprehensive and nuanced answers" after testing takhreej and apparent contradictions (ta'arudh).

Where can we find more information about your islamic database source for the purpose of verifying the authenticity?

S Akram sirajakram25@gmail.com — 2026-07-07, English, 19f3c00bb62a891e (replied)

Asks for the exact sources and scholars the AI relies on; Abdellatif pointed to Almaktaba Alshamela and qaf.ai/sources. Follow-ups: requested file upload (an Islamic mortgage contract — image upload exists on web, files do not) and asked whether certain authors can be hidden (only filtering by author is supported, no hiding).

I’d like to know the exact sources the AI uses for answers, which scholars etc

Luq luq.314@gmail.com — 2026-08-05, English, 19fd341547181252 (NO reply)

A promoter who works with influencers (introduces himself as "the guy with sh raptor") asks for an explanation of why the AI is safe and free of fake fatwas so the influencers he works with can promote it. Unanswered — potentially lost distribution.

please explain to me why this ai is safe to use and does not have ''fake fatwas'' so that the influencers i work with can promote it

Nezir Basar nezirbasar@outlook.com — 2026-08-10, English, 19fed051e562f35a (replied)

27-year-old web developer moving into AI engineering, writing from Vienna. Asks how deeply the schools of jurisprudence are covered and whether answers are attributed to a specific madhhab (Hanafi matters for the Turkish community), and proposes a partnership with an imam/scholar who wrote his doctorate in the field to build a Hanafi source base for Turkish speakers. Abdellatif: content is all from al-Maktaba al-Shamela, corpus expansion is desired but no capacity now, no partnerships yet, wants to stay in touch.

One thing interests me in particular: how deeply have you covered the different schools of jurisprudence in the app?

Details / repro

Threads