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Answers, especially Islamic answers are authentic only when a proper reference from the Holy Qur'an and Hadith, or any other scripture is given in support.

Reason: A question can be answered by any one in any way. So answers with personal opinions and whims are sure to be given by people since SE is open to all. In Islam, an answer is 100% authentic and acceptable if it says what God and his messenger(pbuh) say. If any answer is given with reference to a scripture, it should be classified from the other answers. Also If possible, answerers can be awarded extra reputation for this.

There is a similar question here: Islam: Only answers with references to credible sources should be allowed in this site otherwise they'll be chaos. But it is way too strict for Stack Exchange.

Proposal: Islam

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    The voting system already serves the purpose of classifying good answers from bad answers, and rewards good answers with reputation. I'm not exactly sure what advantages your proposed system provides.
    – goldPseudo
    Commented May 27, 2012 at 17:44
  • @goldPseudo, it is not a question of classifying good answers from bad. Rather, it is an issue of classifying scripture-referenced answers from non-referenced ones. Commented May 28, 2012 at 9:54
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    If a scripture-referenced answer isn't "good" (thus rising to the top and rewarding reputation) and a non-referenced answer isn't "bad" (thus falling to the bottom and detracting reputation), then that's not a problem with the voting system, that's a problem with the community. Either way, this sort of discussion would probably be better on the site meta when it goes live and we can actually see what sort of answers we're getting and what the community is voting on.
    – goldPseudo
    Commented May 28, 2012 at 14:01
  • @TabrezAhmed There is also this issue regarding your suggestion: "Does source (be it an ayat or hadith) really say that?" To A, it does, to B it doesn't. In some cases, multiple meanings can easily be derived, and the source simply does not justify the answer. It is left to you to take it or not. Commented May 31, 2012 at 1:45
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    And of course the issue of someone quoting something that is only tangentially related to the actual question/answer, just so they can have a reference and thus "look official". Whereas a good but unsourced answer may be made better with appropriate references, a bad answer which just happens to quote scripture is still just a bad answer.
    – goldPseudo
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 3:04

2 Answers 2

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Perhaps a broader and more appropriate guideline for this exchange would be something like this:

Answers should be prefaced by discussing applicable sources and explaining where they were derived from.

So answers discussing something jurisprudential or theological should be sourced as much as possible from the primary sources, but if not, then from books of well-known traditional scholars and so on, or opinions of modern-day scholars. The point is that things should be sourced so that people know whether to accept it or not. This is not an 'ilm website, it's an information website - so even if I don't agree with scholar X's authority, if he had an opinion about something, that's information for me, but I may not necessarily accept his opinion. Or if it's about history or culture or anything else, what's important is that the information be sourced.

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There are already guidelines for closing bad subjective questions. If the answers are personal opinions (without reference) then the problem is the question not the answers. The questions should be specific enough such that it will not lead to such personal opinion answers and extended arguments. A subjective question that does not satisfy the guidelines for great subjective question should be closed as "not constructive" and will be reopened when the OP clarifies the question such that it can be answered properly.

Here is part of the Guidelines for Great Subjective Questions:

  1. Great subjective questions inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”. The best subjective questions invite explanation. [...]

  2. Great subjective questions tend to have long, not short, answers. The best subjective questions inspire your peers to share their actual experiences [...] Share your detailed experiences, so that we all might learn from them.

  3. Great subjective questions have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone. The best subjective questions avoid the all too seductive route of ranting and flamebait. They set the right tone of constructive learning and collaboration from the very outset, by emphasizing that we’re all here to learn from each other, even if we have different viewpoints or beliefs about the right way to handle what are inherently subjective decisions. We’re not here to fight each other; that’s an enormous waste of everyone’s time. There is always more than one right way.

  4. Great subjective questions invite sharing experiences over opinions. Certainly experiences inform opinions, but the best subjective questions unabashedly and unashamedly prioritize sharing actual experiences over random opinions. It’s more useful to share with us what you’ve done than what you think. Everyone has an opinon. It takes zero effort or imagination to have an opinion about anything and everything. But people who have done things, real things in the world, and have the scars and arrows in their back to show for it — now that’s worth sharing. You should be uniquely qualified to have your opinion based on the specific experiences you had. And you should share those experiences, and more specifically what you learned from your experiences, with us!

  5. Great subjective questions insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references. Opinion isn’t all bad, so long as it’s backed up with something other than “because I’m an expert”, or “because I said so”, or “just because”. Use your specific experiences to back up your opinions, as above, or point to some research you’ve done on the web or elsewhere that provides evidence to support your claims. We like you. We want to believe you. But like wikipedia itself, {{citation needed}}. And good subjective questions make this clear from the outset: back it up!

  6. Great subjective questions are more than just mindless social fun. [...]

The guideline is quite comprehensive and I don't think there is a need for a separate rule for closing.

Also we can find Hadith for almost any viewpoint (even if we restricted it to main accepted Sunni sources) and without being an expert in Hadith simply it is not informative. There are also various interpretations of Quran that often disagree with each other. Restricting answers to those referencing these sources is not going to be helpful. Even the point that these two are the only authentic references in Islam is not agreed upon by all Muslim scholars. There are various schools of thought with different views on this issue, what you are saying is just one of these viewpoints.

Remember that this is not a Fatwā site and the answers cannot be trusted more than an article on Wikipedia, "authenticity" in the sense that you seem to mean is not a goal here.

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