IslamReligion.com is a website in eleven languages, which was started in January of 2006. It contains brief, yet informative articles about different aspects of Islam and is aimed at people of various faiths, who seek to understand Islam and Muslims. The Live Help chat option is available in six languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, and Tagalog) over three platforms: website chat, Facebook messenger and WhatsApp. The site is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the Muslims working for it are from all over the world. It is one of the projects of the Dawah and Guidance office of Rawdah, which is under the supervision of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
Hiba got in touch with one of its live chat advisers:
How did you think of joining IslamReligion.com as a live chat adviser?
I joined IslamRelgion.com in 2015. At the time, I had a toddler on hands plus was homeschooling my two bigger kids – so I was not looking for any job opportunities due to an already busy life. So it happened that a family friend, who already worked for the website, contacted me with the offer of this job. On hearing the specifics of the work, I discussed it with my husband, and we agreed that if Allah (swt) has placed such a great Dawah opportunity right in front of me, it is an honour that I should not and cannot refuse.
What kind of traffic frequents the website in terms of gender, faith, age, and income group?
The website mainly focuses on non-Muslims and new Muslims. Thus, the articles on it are accordingly geared towards such audience. Since it is a big and popular website on Islam, any browser search will give it in top listings for those who search to chat online about Islam, which tends to bring to us also born Muslims. Lots of people come to us already wishing to convert to Islam: they search online about conversion process and end up with us – we help them convert.
Generally, visitors are from very varied age groups and countries, although young people tend to come to chat more, as they are more tech savvy. Another factor that affects the visitors’ demographics is the advertisements that IslamReligion.com runs through Facebook and Google ads. For example, at the moment, the ads focus mainly on African countries, so we get lots of visitors from there. In African countries, Facebook is usually a standard free of charge service that mobile companies offer, even if any other browsing is not included in the basic packages. So IslamReligion.com has found this niche for reaching out to this particular population, who otherwise do not have access to online information about Islam. We engage such visitors through Facebook chatting option on IslamReligion.com Facebook page.
What are the top three questions put forward by non-Muslims generally?
If I do not count the people, who come directly for conversion, then, unfortunately, misconceptions about Islam are the most common: terrorism and women’s rights issues. Lots of non-Muslims come also because they are involved in relationships with Muslims or are about to marry a Muslim – they want to know more about Islam, about marriage in general and duties of husbands and wives.
Ironically, when bad things happen in the Islamic world or Muslims get accused of “terrorism”, we get visitors who come because they do not believe the media reports and want to know the truth. So even media misinformation can serve as a gateway to draw people closer to Islam, Alhamdulillah.
What kind of worries do Muslim inquirers have?
Since our main focus is non-Muslims and new Muslims, then depending on traffic volume on chat at that moment, we may not answer to born Muslims but re-direct them to other online services. Born Muslims generally do not come with inquiries about Islam but rather with questions about particular situations in life – that is to say, they come for a Fatwah or psychological counseling. Depression is getting big nowadays – we even discussed within the team of advisers how to answer such visitors best and what resources to suggest to them. Sadly, many come with prospective marriage issues, where parents are refusing them to get married due to any un-Islamic reasons – different race, different culture, or not enough wealth.
Can you share a story that brought personal joy to you?
Last year, when Israelis attacked Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan, I had one of the most heart-warming experiences on chat – a Jewish born woman writer and artist came to chat and converted to Islam. She said this attack was the final straw, which finally made her take the decision to convert. She was very emotional about her conversion and agreed to share her story with the website as well, so it can be read now in our convert stories’ section.
On a personal level, the work on chat has been such a blessing for me in many ways. Besides the fact that it is a continuous opportunity for me to grow and learn, it has been an honour to give phone calls to so many countries in the world for helping people pronounce the Shahadah. Surprisingly, I found out that even my toddler daughter had learned the Shahadah just by hearing me say it over phone again and again, as I was guiding people to convert. Yet another enormous blessing is the Duas visitors make for me, my family and our chat service in general, as they leave the chat.
Similarly, do you recall any incident that disturbed you or made you sad?
We do get trolls who come to our chat just to abuse and make fun of Islam. Some of them come even with amazing frequency, as if it is part of their daily routine to spit some venom. It is always very unpleasant to see it, but I know Allah (swt) will duly deal with them.
However, there is one case that made me truly sad – we had a visitor from India, who identified himself as Christian wanting to learn about Islam. He came to chat for over a long period of time and kept asking questions about Islam. He ended up converting with us, which made our entire team of advisers very happy. Further, he said he was giving Dawah to his church youth group members and time to time brought some of them to our chat for converting. In the end, all of this turned out to be a huge scam and he himself a big troll, who had taken so much of our time on chat, which could have been spent on helping genuine visitors. Somehow it does happen quite often that we get trolls from India, who come to chat with the particular goal to keep us engaged, thus taking away time from other visitors.
What should be the minimum qualification of the adviser to help these seeking souls?
The chat advisers’ team consists of Muslims from very varied backgrounds situated all over the world. Some are Sheikhs and scholars of Islam, while others are like me – just converts. I believe that visitors and advisers get paired up by the will of Allah (swt), as He knows who can help whom best. If scholars can give good answers on Fiqh-related questions, then a convert like me can better relate with those who are in process of learning about Islam or face reactions of their families after conversion, as I have gone through it all myself. So I guess there is really no hard rule on qualifications as such, although as far as I know, experience in the field of Dawah is needed.
Do you mostly have one-time visitors, or do you think they come back again?
Both. Majority are one-time visitors but there are also those who keep coming back. And often they even prefer to talk only to the particular adviser, with whom they had began talking first. Since we use a special chat engagement software for our work, we can see the details of geographical location of the visitors as well as their previous chat history with us. Over the years, this software has been updated to be more and more helpful, Alhamdulillah.
When you are unable to help, do you refer your callers to other sources of information?
Through chat engagement software, we have a database of ready-made short answers for most of the frequently asked questions. This is a huge help and time saver. Besides that, based on chat experience, we also have a several hundreds of pages resource of other suggested answers and a WhatsApp resources group, where chat advisers share helpful links they come across. We have also been informed of suggested Fatwah websites, which we are allowed to use for giving answers.
In cases, where I do not know the answer and cannot find it in resources, I sometime ask for answer from fellow advisers, who are Sheikhs. If any born Muslims have very specific situations they deal with, I usually suggest that they talk to any of their local scholar or Imam, because on chat we usually get only one side of the story. If they need a Fatwah, I ask them to contact Fatwah websites directly.
What is the importance of online Dawah in today’s age?
The Internet is full of wonderful opportunities that can be effectively used for Dawah. Even with such examples like the above mentioned one about the African countries, there are ways to find and deliver information to those who would not have had access to it before. However, the Dawah work online has to be done with tolerance and proper guidelines for it, so as not to engage in useless arguments and fruitless confrontations.
Is there any downside to it?
Yes, as no online interaction can replace human contact. I always try to encourage new Muslims to connect with their local Muslim community, if they have not done it yet. This is because human contact and daily real-life support can give a boost to faith that online interaction can never achieve.
Your dream as an adviser?
The work on chat has opened to me a view of a new reality – a world where I daily see lots of people genuinely interested in Islam and wanting to convert. The reality of thirst for Islam. Yes, all of us know that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today, yet we do not make the move for becoming an active part of spreading the message. It is my wish that I could somehow show this reality of thirst for Islam to others and encourage them to start spreading the message – in whatever small or big ways that are possible for them.
Hiba prays for the success and reward of the team of IslamReligion.com. Ameen.
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