Community Guidelines

Effective: 6 August 2026  ·  Version: 2026-08-06

Suhbah means companionship — the good kind, the kind that changes you. This app is named after it because the goal was never a directory. It's for finding your people and your places. These guidelines are how we keep it that way. They apply everywhere in Suhbah: reviews, posts, comments, messages, guides, communities and gatherings.

1. Lead with adab

Assume the best interpretation. Disagree without contempt. Ask before you accuse. Most arguments on the internet are between people who agree on almost everything and are shouting about the remainder — don't add to them.

Suhbah brings together people from very different backgrounds, madhhabs, levels of practice and cultures. Someone whose practice looks different from yours is still your brother or sister here. Treat them that way, in public and in DMs.

2. Respect and safety

Not allowed, anywhere in Suhbah:

• Harassment — targeting someone with insults, pile-ons, unwanted repeated contact, or following them across the app to keep at them.
• Hate speech — attacks on people based on religion, sect or madhhab, race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, gender, disability, or any other protected characteristic.
• Threats, intimidation or incitement to violence, including "jokes" that a reasonable person would read as a threat.
• Sexual content, nudity, or sexual harassment, including unsolicited advances and explicit messages.
• Graphic violence or gore.
• Doxxing — publishing anyone's home address, workplace, phone number, immigration status or other private information without permission.
• Impersonation — pretending to be another person, a business, a masjid or a scholar.
• Illegal activity, or using Suhbah to organise or promote it.
• Predatory behaviour — including pressuring anyone for personal contact, money, or to meet privately.

Block and report freely. Blocking is not rudeness; it's a tool. You are never obliged to keep engaging with someone who is making you uncomfortable, and you do not owe anyone an explanation for it.

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. Then report it to us.

3. Honest reviews

Reviews only work if they're real.

• Write from your own experience. If you didn't go, don't review it.
• Be specific and be fair. "Chai was excellent, seating is tight on weekends" helps someone. "Trash" helps nobody.
• No fake or incentivised reviews. Don't review your own business, your family's business, or a competitor's. Don't buy, sell, trade or solicit reviews.
• Disclose anything you got free. A comped meal, a gifted item, a paid partnership — say so plainly, in the review or post itself.
• No revenge reviews. A dispute with an owner isn't a review of the food.
• Keep it about the place. Not the owner's politics, their nationality, or an argument you had in the comments.
• Update rather than pile on. If a place fixed the problem, say so. People change, and so do kitchens.

4. Halal reporting standards

• Report what you observed, not what you heard. "I saw the certificate on the wall, dated 2026" is useful. "Someone told me they're not really halal" is a rumour, and rumours don't belong here.
• Evidence over assertion. If you have a photo of a certificate, a supplier name, or something the staff told you directly, add it. Suhbah shows a confidence level built from evidence, and the evidence is what makes it mean anything.
• Don't declare anything halal or haram on someone else's behalf. Report facts — what's served, what's certified, what the staff said, whether alcohol is on the menu — and let people apply their own standard.
• Respect that standards differ. Hand-slaughtered vs. machine, mainstream certifiers vs. others, whether alcohol served on the premises is a dealbreaker — these are genuine differences among practising Muslims. Suhbah surfaces the facts so people can decide. It is not the place to litigate whose standard is correct.
• Never submit false evidence. Fabricating or doctoring a certificate is a serious violation and will get your account permanently removed.
• Tell us when something changes. Suppliers change, ownership changes, certifications lapse. An update is as valuable as the original report.

5. Photos and other people's privacy

• Ask before you photograph people — especially women, especially children, especially inside a masjid.
• Don't post identifiable photos of anyone who hasn't agreed to appear. If someone asks you to take a photo of them down, take it down.
• Don't post photos of a private gathering, someone's home, or a closed community event without the host's permission.
• Don't screenshot a private message or a private community and post it publicly.
• Photos of food, interiors and menus are what the app is for. Photos of strangers eating are not.

6. Gathering etiquette

If you RSVP

• Show up, or cancel. Hosts plan headcounts and pay for food. A late cancellation is far better than a no-show.
• Respect the gender context. If a host has set a gathering as sisters-only, brothers-only or mixed, that setting is not a suggestion. Don't attend a gathering not meant for you, and don't pressure a host to change it.
• Respect the venue and the people working in it. Tip well.
• No solicitation. A gathering is not a lead list. Don't pitch business, sell anything, or collect contacts for marketing.
• Don't use gatherings for unwanted romantic pursuit. If someone isn't interested, that's the end of it.

If you host

• Describe your gathering honestly — time, place, cost, what's included, and any restrictions.
• Set the gender context clearly and enforce it.
• Be reachable, be on time, and tell people promptly if plans change.
• Treat attendee information as private. It's for running your event, not for building a mailing list.
• You're responsible for safety at your gathering. Public venues, clear directions, and a way to reach you go a long way.

7. Masjids and religious content

• No sectarian attacks. Suhbah is for all Muslims. Content attacking a school of thought, a sect or a community's practice will be removed.
• Don't issue fatwas. Suhbah isn't a place for rulings. Share what you know, cite where it's from, and point people to qualified scholars for anything binding.
• Respect differences of madhhab and practice. Prayer times, moon sighting, and countless other things vary legitimately between communities. Suhbah shows calculated estimates and community-submitted times, and the local masjid is always the authority.
• Masjid information must be accurate. If you post iqamah times, announcements or programmes for a masjid, you should be authorised to do so and you should keep them current. Stale prayer times cause people to miss prayers.
• Don't use a masjid listing for politics or to campaign against its leadership. Take internal disputes to the board, not to a public review.
• No proselytising at people who haven't asked, and no attacking anyone's faith or lack of it.

8. Businesses, creators and spam

• Be who you say you are. Claim a listing only if you're authorised to act for that business or masjid.
• Don't astroturf. No reviewing your own business, no incentivising reviews, no fake accounts, no asking staff or family to post.
• Don't remove honest criticism. Managing a listing lets you keep information current. It doesn't let you delete reviews you dislike. Reply to them instead — a good reply does more for you than a deletion would.
• Creators must disclose sponsorships, gifted meals, affiliate links and paid partnerships. Clearly, in the content, not buried.
• No spam — repetitive posts, irrelevant links, mass DMs, engagement bait, or scraping the app for contacts.
• No scams, MLM recruitment, crypto pitches, or "investment opportunities".
• Keep promotion in the places built for it. A community thread about iftar plans is not an ad slot.

9. Adults only

Suhbah is an 18+ platform. Don't create an account for a minor, don't help one sign up, and don't post content that sexualises or endangers a child. Any content sexualising a minor is reported to the authorities and results in immediate permanent removal, with no appeal.

10. Reporting and enforcement

How to report

Every post, comment, review, message, gathering and profile has a report option. Tell us what you saw and why it's a problem — the more specific you are, the faster we can act. Reports are confidential; we don't tell the reported person who filed.

You can also block anyone, which stops them contacting you or seeing your content. Blocking and reporting are independent — do either, or both.

What happens next

A human reviews the report in context. Depending on what happened and whether it's a pattern, we may:

We aim to be proportionate and to consider context. But threats, sexual content involving minors, credible safety risks and coordinated fraud skip the ladder entirely — those are immediate permanent removals.

Community and masjid moderators can also manage content in their own spaces, under these same guidelines.

Appeals

If you think we got it wrong, reply to the notice you received or email saad@smughal.com within 30 days. A person will look at it again. We keep records of enforcement decisions so they stay consistent and reviewable, and we do reverse decisions when we've made a mistake.

A last word

Rules are the floor, not the goal. The goal is that someone new to a city opens this app, finds a decent plate of food and a gathering worth going to, and walks away having met people who make their deen and their week better. Everything above is just what it takes to keep that possible.

Questions or something we should add? saad@smughal.com.

See also our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.