Is the "Write a Islam-coded religion with a Goddess instead of a God + the issue with magic"-Question off-topic and remain closed?

Question

I haven't been around here a lot lately, so I might not be up to date:

Why is this question closed?

I'm not saying that this question is of premium quality. It has several issues, it lacks research by the OP, the introduction into the world is too short, it lacks boundaries under which an answer is still valid, but that applies to almost any other question on this SE. In fact, the reason why I rarely visit this site is because in my point of view, this question is perfectly average for this site. The community has established again and again that even questions to worlds with low maturity are completely ok and I think one can argue (I'll get to that) that this is the entire issue here. I get why one would want to close this question, but please think a minute before pulling the trigger. Even though not explicitly stated, it all boils down to the following issue as do maybe 99% of the questions here:

The OP lacks knowledge about a topic, here magic and islam, to twist it around enough to suit their needs and that knowledge could be provided in this SE. In my opinion, it should stay open because how many questions are there where the OP establishes their problem well enough but hasn't figured out the right question to ask yet? I think if you can ask the correct question, you have already figured out the problem and if you can't solve it yourself at this point, people here can't either. Most SE questions have some misunderstanding at their core, from historical facts to problem solving methodology. That's not strictly a WB issue, almost any other SE I visit has the same issue, people have an issue and then ask the wrong questions about it. The question asked by the op is:

My question is: Is there a way under the tenets of Islam to use magic in Her service?

I don't want to quote 20 other questions on this site. Go ahead and browse through a couple of them. Most of them are unanswerable as asked, but with a slight twist, one can explain the actual issue and show ways on how to solve them. To me the question at hand sounds completely average. People here always have a vague idea about what they want but just can't put it into the right words. It still works for most questions here, why is this one any different? And if this is just a matter of phrasing, why has nobody commented on that yet?

People have given rather weak reasons in the comments for why the question is such a bad fit. I don't want to explain every point made in detail, at least not until someone brings them up here. That's because I don't think it matters at all what people wrote in the comments, all that matters is:

Should this question have been closed in the first place? And if so, why and does everyone agree?

My opinion is that one should read a bit more between the lines. Honestly, I think this one was closed because people feel less comfortable with Islam than they feel with space travel, but then please state so, write an answer about it and don't bs around in the comments.

I promised you that I'll get to the argue part again: One could argue that this is off topic. One could argue a lot of things. One could argue that the OP should write about what they know. But just because there is the possibility of interpreting something differently, well, why not twist that argument around and say that there is the possibility to see it as neither opinion based nor too broad and leave the question open?

Answer 1

IMO, this question should be reopened, then downvoted (unless improved)

Asking how to modify an existing Earth religion (philosophy, culture, behavior, etc.) to accommodate or justify a fictional premise should be one of the staple purposes of this site. From the perspective of how this site is used, it's simply a alternate-earth question.

On the other hand, asking (from another current question) which of two wizards would win a fight is 100% too story-based. Why do I bring this up? To point out the difference between too story-based and an acceptable question. Elemtilas, in a comment to the question, claims that narrative necessity would justify any change to the religion that the OP wants. Except that the argument of narrative necessity¹ only applies to the consequences of actions, circumstances, and plot. Modifying today's technology, culture, etc. to fit the needs of worldbuilding is literally what we're supposed to be doing.

As a disclaimer: the question stinks. It's asked badly, and I've pointed that out in comments. If the only question is "how do I rationalize magic use in Islamic tradition?" then why is the OP getting us all whipped up in a froth over useless info like the deity's gender? I wish the OP had posted this in the Sandbox first. The question is not well focused and too many people have been distracted by the backstory. It also should use the alternate-earth tag, whether that's the final outcome in the OP's story or not.

BTW, I could use help in the Sandbox. Thanks.

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_{¹ For the record, I really like the idea of narrative necessity when describing something as too story-based. In other words, if you need the story to have wizard A win the fight, then make it so. But that's the outcome of a plot, circumstance, or action and I simply don't believe that's the question being asked here.}

Answer 2

OP has said that they did their research, but the Quran is crystal clear about magic being:

• Sinful and evil;
• The work of Satan himself;
• Strictly forbidden to muslims.

Meaning the OP didn't do the most basic research.

Then there is the implication of "create a religion for me" from the title. We help creating worlds, but we don't do the whole package for others.

Finally, if they are going to create their fictional religion whatever rules they want go, even if it is based on a real world religion. IMO that is asking about a story (since usually fictional religions tie into fictional worlds through plot).