Verification
Three marks, three different claims
Three of them sit beside a name and share one rosette, so each reads as ours, and each carries a different glyph because each says a completely different thing. The fourth sits on the avatar instead. This page says what every one of them asserts, and, more usefully, what it does not.
- Granted by people, never by a form
- The tick cannot be bought
- A mark that stops being true comes off
The three marks, and what each one is for
Staff
Granted by us, never applied for
- What it says
- This account speaks for Ya Habibi. What it posts is the company talking, whether that is an announcement, a moderation decision or an answer to somebody in a circle.
- What it does not say
- It says nothing about religious learning. A member of staff is somebody who works here, not a scholar, and the mark makes no claim about what they know.
Islamic official
Free, and it cannot be bought
- What it says
- A person at Ya Habibi read this scholar's ijazah, sanad, degree or letter of appointment, checked their identity against those documents, and telephoned the institution that issued them. The role it was granted for is always printed next to it, because a tick with no role attached is the exact ambiguity this mark exists to remove.
- What it does not say
- It does not say Ya Habibi agrees with them, and it does not mean anybody without it knows less. Most of the learned people in the world will never apply for one, and that is normal.
Food spot
Granted after the certificate is checked
- What it says
- This is a halal food business listed in Ya Habibi. Somebody here has held its halal certificate, matched the premises named on it to the premises on the listing, and looked that certificate up in the certifying body's own register.
- What it does not say
- It asserts nothing whatsoever about Islamic scholarship, and it is deliberately not the tick. A listing is a commercial arrangement, and a commercial arrangement is never allowed to look like religious authority.
The point of the whole thing
The tick and the knife and fork are the same rosette on purpose
Both are Ya Habibi marks, so both wear the rosette. What sits inside it is the claim, and these two claims have nothing to do with each other.
Religious authority
Earned over years, then checked by a person who read the documents and telephoned the institution that issued them. It is free, it takes days rather than minutes, and there is no way to buy it.
A listed business
A halal food business that pays to be listed, whose halal certificate a person here has checked against the certifying body's own register. That is a real check, and it is a check about meat rather than about scholarship.
Collapse them into one mark and a subscription buys the appearance of religious authority.
That is the failure this design exists to prevent, and it is why the glyphs differ rather than the colours or the shapes. A knife and fork cannot be misread as a tick at the size a mark is drawn beside a name in a feed row, which a second shade of the same rosette very easily could.
In the Ummah feed
A mark lifts a post. It cannot buy the top of one.
Staff, verified Islamic officials and checked food spots are all lifted in the For you feed, so a post from a marked account is easy to find rather than buried. None of them is placed at the top, and the arithmetic is what makes that a promise rather than an intention.
Staff sit highest
The account that speaks for Ya Habibi is lifted above the other two marks, by about the width of the feed's own shuffle. That is a preference and not a partition: a well-liked scholar still passes a quiet staff post.
Officials and food spots are lifted equally
A verified Islamic official and a checked food spot carry exactly the same lift, because both were granted by a person reading a document. Neither of them is a placement, and neither of them is bought.
Popularity outweighs all of it
What a post earns from replies, likes and reposts spans a wider range than any mark is worth. A post nobody engaged with does not outrank one people did, whatever is drawn beside the name on it.
And some quiet posts are lifted anyway
One post in five is raised off a floor regardless of marks and regardless of traction, so somebody with no mark and no following still reaches the body of the feed.
How a mark is granted
Four steps, and the third one is a telephone call
A photograph of an ijazah proves that a document exists. It does not prove that the named institution issued it, that it was issued to this person, or that it has not since been withdrawn. One telephone call answers all three, and nothing that can be done at a desk answers any of them.
You say what you hold
Imam, mufti, qari, alim, mujtahid and the rest. The list is long because the roles are real and they are not the same thing. Some of them carry no mark at all, and the app says so on the row before you choose it rather than at the end of an application.
You show the document
The certificate, the ijazah and its chain, or the letter from the mosque that appointed you. Handwriting is fine, so is damage, so is age, and so is a document in a language nobody on that day's desk reads: it goes to somebody who does. None of those counts against an application.
A person reads it, then telephones
Not a machine. Somebody at Ya Habibi reads the documents and rings the institution that issued them, on a number they found themselves rather than one that arrived with the application. That call is the check, and it is written down: who was rung, on what number, where the number came from, and what was said.
It can come off
A role that ends is a mark that ends. If somebody leaves the post the mark was granted for, or the institution withdraws what it granted, the mark comes off the profile and the person is told why, rather than a profile carrying a claim that has stopped being true.
Think a mark is wrong?
Report the account in the app, or write to us with the username and what you believe is wrong with the mark. A person reads it. A mark that should not be there comes off, and the account is told why.
Questions people ask
Can I pay for the tick?
No. The tick is free and it cannot be bought. Nothing purchasable anywhere in Ya Habibi grants it, and the food spot listing carries a different mark with a different glyph for exactly that reason.
Why do halal restaurants not get the tick?
Because the tick asserts religious authority and a food business has not claimed any. One mark serving both claims would let a paid listing carry the appearance of scholarship, so the food spot mark is the same rosette with a knife and fork inside it.
What is the difference between the staff mark and the tick?
The staff mark says an account speaks for Ya Habibi, and it is granted by us rather than earned. The tick says a person's role in Islam was checked with the institution that granted it. One is authority over the product, the other is authority in the religion, and they are never the same mark.
Does a badge push a post to the top of the feed?
No. Staff, verified Islamic officials and checked food spots are all lifted in the Ummah feed, officials and food spots by the same amount, but popularity spans a wider range than any mark, so a post people engaged with can and does outrank a marked post nobody did.
Does the tick mean Ya Habibi agrees with them?
No, and it does not mean somebody without it knows less. It records that a role was checked, and when. It is worth knowing that people read a tick as heavier than that, which is why the role it was granted for is always printed beside it.
How do I report a badge I believe is wrong?
Write to us through support with the username and what you think is wrong with the mark. A person reads it, and a mark that should not be there comes off rather than being defended.
The two marks in full
See the marks in the app
Free on iOS and Android. Every mark in the Ummah opens a sheet that says what it means, in the same words as this page.