Terms of Use

Shia Online Community is a volunteer-run, non-profit archive of Islamic content with an emphasis on the Twelver Shia school: majalis, nohay, marsiya, supplications, rulings, books, news and the people and places behind them, gathered and organised by the community. It is offered free of charge for education and religious practice. We may change, pause or retire parts of the service at any time.

• You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, and you must give a real email address that you control.
• One person, one account. Keep your password private; everything done with your account is your responsibility. Tell us at once if you think it has been compromised.
• Usernames that impersonate others, contain slurs, or are reserved for the service are not allowed and may be changed.
• Roles such as Member, Author, Validator, Moderator and Manager are granted by the team and may be withdrawn at any time.

You keep whatever rights you hold in what you submit — collections, items, descriptions, comments, images, audio and video (“your content”). So that we can run the archive, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for example to transcode media or fix formatting), display, distribute and make your content available through the service and through search engines, feeds and embeds, for as long as it remains on the service. This licence lets other members and the public view, share and discuss it within the service and, where a page offers download, keep a personal copy.

By submitting content you promise that you have the right to do so: it is your own work, or it was shared publicly by its author or performer for the benefit of the community, or you have permission. Recordings of gatherings, recitations and lectures are typically shared freely by their reciters and organisers; if you are the rights holder and disagree, section 6 tells you how to have it removed.

Submissions are reviewed before they appear publicly. We may edit metadata, merge duplicates, move an item to a better collection, add a validation badge or decline a submission. We do not claim ownership of your content and we do not sell it.

Do not use the service to:

• post content that is unlawful, defamatory, threatening, hateful, sexually explicit, or that incites violence or sectarian hatred against any group;
• upload material you have no right to share, or strip attribution from someone else's work;
• impersonate a person, scholar, organisation or the service itself;
• spam, advertise, run fundraising or political campaigns, or post the same thing repeatedly;
• harvest members' data, scrape at scale, probe or attack our systems, or try to bypass rate limits, moderation or access controls;
• publish anyone's private information, or disrespect the deceased and their families in comments.

Disagreement is welcome; abuse is not. Moderators decide, and may remove content or restrict accounts without notice where necessary.

We may hide or remove content, limit features, suspend or permanently ban an account for breaking these terms, for legal reasons, or to protect other members, and we may do so without prior warning in serious cases. You may stop using the service at any time and ask us to delete your account (see the Privacy Policy). Parts of these terms that by their nature should survive — content licence for what remains published, disclaimers, limitation of liability — continue after termination.

The archive exists because people share recordings and texts freely; we respect the rights of those who do not wish to. If you believe content on the service infringes your copyright, email info@shia-online.com with the URL, a description of the work, proof that you hold the rights, and your contact details. We will remove or disable access to the material promptly, notify the member who posted it, and may restore it if they show they had permission. Repeat infringers lose their accounts. Knowingly false complaints may be reported to the member concerned.

Pages embed media hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud and similar platforms, link to other websites, and republish news articles from other outlets with attribution. We do not control those sources, do not endorse them, and are not responsible for their content, availability or practices. Rulings, translations and historical material are provided for study; verify with a qualified scholar before acting on them.

The service is provided “as is” and “as available”. Volunteers make every reasonable effort to keep material accurate and authentic, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of any content, nor uninterrupted or error-free operation. To the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim all warranties, express or implied.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Shia Online Community (shia-online.com), maintained by the Shiasoft Network, its volunteers and contributors are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for any loss of data, reputation or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the service or from any content on it. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.

These terms are governed by the laws of Pakistan, where the community is based, and any dispute is subject to the courts of Karachi — without prejudice to any rights you have as a consumer under the law of the country where you live. Before going to court, please write to info@shia-online.com; most problems are solved by a conversation.

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows the current version and material changes are announced to signed-in members. Continued use after a change means you accept it. Questions, complaints and notices: info@shia-online.com.