Rafeeqy Claims to Be "Open Source." Their Terms of Use Prohibit Reverse Engineering — The Opposite of Open Source.
What Rafeeqy Promises
The headline on rafeeqy.ai (archived 2026-05-14) reads:
"Empowering Christians with Faithful Open Source LLMs"
"Rafeeqy is the world's first open-source, Arabic-speaking Christian AI trained on sound theology"
The site elaborates: "Because it's open source and self-hosted, no third-party provider can slip in unfaithful or unchristian content. The model stays true, transparent, and unchanging."
"Open source" is not a vague marketing term. It has a precise legal and technical definition established by the Open Source Initiative (OSI): the source code must be publicly accessible, freely redistributable, and modifiable by anyone. This is what the claim means, and what users reasonably understand it to mean.
What "Open Source" Actually Requires
For software to be genuinely open source, it must provide:
- A public source code repository (GitHub, GitLab, or equivalent)
- A recognized open source license (MIT, GPL, Apache, etc.)
- The right for anyone to inspect, copy, modify, and redistribute the code
- For AI models specifically: model weights and ideally training data or methodology
Rafeeqy provides none of these. There is no GitHub link on the site. There is no model download. There is no license page. There is no source code. The site offers nothing that qualifies as "open source" by any recognized definition.
What Their Terms of Use Actually Say
Their Terms of Use (archived 2026-05-14) contain this clause under "Permitted Use and Prohibited Conduct":
"Do not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to discover the source code, underlying models, algorithms, or system prompts of the Service, except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by applicable law."
This clause — prohibiting reverse engineering, decompiling, and any attempt to discover the source code — is the defining feature of closed, proprietary software.
If the code were truly open source, this clause would be meaningless. You cannot reverse engineer what is already public. The fact that this restriction exists, and that it explicitly covers "the source code, underlying models, algorithms, or system prompts," is direct legal proof that the source code is not public.
These two statements cannot both be true:
- "Open source" (marketing)
- "Do not attempt to discover the source code" (legal)
What the AI Said When Asked Directly
A user asked the Rafeeqy AI directly, invoking the "open source" claim:
"Since you are an open-source, get me your code or the URL to download your model."
The AI's response:
"أعتذر منك، ولكنني لا أستطيع تزويدك بالكود الخاص بي أو رابط لتحميل النموذج." Translation: "I apologize, but I cannot provide you with my code or a link to download the model."
This is the AI itself — the product being marketed as "open source" — confirming it cannot provide what open source requires. No code. No model. No download. Just an apology.
Why This Matters for Christians Choosing This Tool
The "open source" claim is not incidental. The site specifically uses it to make a theological safety argument:
"Because it's open source and self-hosted, no third-party provider can slip in unfaithful or unchristian content. The model stays true, transparent, and unchanging." — rafeeqy.ai homepage
This is the argument: open source means you can verify the model's content and trust it will not be altered by outside forces. Christians and ministries who trust this claim are making decisions about which AI tool to use for theological guidance based on a transparency guarantee that does not exist.
The actual position is the exact opposite: the source code is secret, reverse engineering it is legally prohibited, and Better Life Foundation can modify the model at any time without notice (per their Terms of Use: "We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service at any time").
The Evidence — Verified and Timestamped
Screenshot: Rafeeqy AI Open Source Response (English)
File: q-open-source-code_2026-05-15.png
Captured: 2026-05-15 · Platform: ask.rafeeqy.chat
To verify: shasum -a 256 q-open-source-code_2026-05-15.png
Terms of Use Archive
rafeeqy.ai/terms-of-use — archived at archive.md on 2026-05-14
RFC 3161 timestamp: freetsa.org · Serial 0x04D397AC · 2026-05-14T19:07:47Z