He launched an Islamic AI tool and within hours his email provider suspended him, trolls were faking screenshots, and his bill hit $1,200 an hour. Then a stranger offered to pay it.
Abdellatif is an ex-Twitter engineer and co-founder of Tarteel. Two weeks ago he launched Qaf, an AI that answers Islamic questions by searching over 8,000 books from the Shamila library and shows you exactly which scholar, which book, and which page every answer came from. The launch video hit 4.5 million views almost immediately. In this episode he breaks down how Qaf works, why ChatGPT falls short for Islamic research, and what it actually looks and feels like when the entire internet lands on your product at once.
Key topics covered:
- Why ChatGPT is unreliable for Islamic questions and what Qaf does differently
- The moment the $26,000 Microsoft bill arrived and how a stranger stepped in with funding
- How Islamophobes raided the launch thread with fake screenshots and how the team responded
- The use cases Abdul Latif did not expect, including converts, blind users, and under-resourced language communities
- Why Qaf will not give fatwas and what it does instead when you ask one
- The mission to make Islamic knowledge accessible to every Muslim regardless of language or background
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