Askimam is a

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

providing information regarding

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. It was founded by South African Islamic scholar and jurist

Ebrahim Desai Ebrahim Desai (16 January 1963 – 15 July 2021) was a South African Muslim scholar and jurist who established the Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah, the Askimam fatawa portal and served as the senior professor of hadith at Madrasah In'aamiyyah. He was ...

in 2000. The answers on this website are reflections of the juristic views of the

Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...

Deobandi The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the nam ...

school of thought. It has been called more influential, wide-ranging and comprehensive than the web resources of

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

and its sympathisers put together.

History

The website was started by South African Islamic scholar and jurist

, who formerly headed the Darul Ifta of

Madrasah In'aamiyyah The Madrasah In’aamiyyah Camperdown, is an institute of higher Islamic learning and teaching based in Durban, South Africa. A number of students from the United States, Canada, Belgium, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia, Philippines, Mozam ...

. It is thought to be technically-updated mirror of another site, ask-imam.com, which started in 2000. Askimam.org was launched in 2004. It aims to help people who use the World Wide Web to access common Islamic questions and answers. The website had about 4686 religious edicts in August 2002. A survey was conducted about the structure of the

fatawa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

(religious edicts) on Askimam in 2011. It was seen that despite Ebrahim Desai's students belonging to various geographical locations, they prepared a plethora of edicts, and Desai was the final authority. He was the master teacher and each

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

had a closing line, 'checked and approved by Mufti Ebrahim Desai'. According to scholar G. R. Bunt, Askimam reflects the views of Muslims living as a minority in non-Muslim societies. Questions come from a variety of religious perspectives and several new fatwas are posted every day. The questions on the site demonstrate several challenges faced by Muslims in the contemporary era. Bunt described the site as more comprehensive, influential and wide-ranging than the web resources of

al-Azhar Al-Azhar Mosque (), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic Islamic core of the city. Commissioned as the new capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in 970, it was the first mosque established in a city that ...

and its sympathisers put together. The site's founder died on 15 July 2021 in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Approach

Askimam website reflects the outlook of the Deobandi Hanafi school of thought. The answers provided do not always provide substantial textual analysis and justifications but are concise. The difference between

ijtihad ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ' , ) is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with '' taqlid'' ( ...

and fatwas is acknowledged. The scholars and jurists associated with the website differentiate between the opinions of different Islamic schools of thought. The site provides answers only to

Fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

- (Jurisprudence) related questions in light of the

school. It also suggests that people following other Sunni schools of thought ask their appropriate scholars.

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History

Approach

See also

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