Request for API access: Mohamed ibn Ahmed

[MD-md1993]

• Please tell us about yourself (include an email address):
  My name is Mohamed ibn Ahmed and I am involved in developing a live translation and captioning tool for mosques in the Netherlands.
  Email: [socialmedia@arrahmaan.nl](mailto:socialmedia@arrahmaan.nl)

• Your purpose in using this API:
  We are building a live khutbah translation and captioning application for mosques. The system listens to Arabic speech during sermons and lessons, detects whether quoted text is from the Qur’an or hadith, and then displays the correct source text and translation in an OBS/browser overlay.

  We would like to use the Sunnah.com API to index hadith collections for accurate hadith detection and source referencing. The goal is not to republish the full database publicly as a standalone hadith website, but to support real-time identification, citation, and display of relevant hadith references during live Islamic lectures and khutbahs.

  This project is being developed in the Netherlands as a waqf (charitable community project) intended to benefit mosques and the wider Dutch Muslim community. Our aim is to make Islamic lectures, sermons, and educational programs more accessible through live captions, translations, and source references, especially for younger generations, non-Arabic speakers, reverts, and members of the community who may struggle to fully understand spoken Arabic.

  Initially, this will be used by a small number of mosques, starting with approximately three mosques.

• API rate limits:

  • Maximum requests per second: 1–2 requests per second
  • Maximum requests per day: 1,000–2,000 requests per day during development and indexing

  We expect most usage to be for initial indexing and synchronization. During live usage, we prefer to query a local indexed database rather than call the API repeatedly.

• Is your use case better served by having an offline dump of hadith data or programmatic API access?
  An offline dump would likely serve our use case better. We intend to build a local searchable index for fast and reliable live hadith matching, especially to reduce latency and avoid excessive API calls during live sermons.

  Programmatic API access would still be useful for updates, verification, and keeping the local index synchronized, but an offline snapshot is preferable for the main use case.

• What are the languages in which would you like hadith data?
  Arabic and English.

• What programming language will your API client be in?
  Python.

  The backend is built with FastAPI, and the local search/indexing layer will likely use SQLite FTS5 or a similar local search engine.