How Iqraa Came to Be

I understood how important learning to understand the Quran in its true, original form is for the Iman. But when I looked for tools to help me, it was even more frustrating. I found dozens of apps to display the Mushaf or to play recordings of recitations, but nothing to help my understand it! Only a few of the popular language learning apps included Arabic, and none of them focused on the Arabic of the Quran. I didn't want to spend months learning basic modern Arabic travel phrases, only to still not be able to understand the Message of Allah!

I did find some tutoring services for Quranic Arabic, but needing to schedule special classes was expensive and didn't let me study at my own pace. Even worse, those classes took a very general "one-size-fits-all" approach, without meeting my own personal needs. After months of special classes focused on a lot of dull grammar study, I still couldn't even start to read my favorite Surahs... I didn't feel like I was getting any closer to my goal at all.

Completely frustrated and about to give up, I started talking to more and more brothers and sisters about the situation and I realized that many of us are are struggling in the exact same situation. So I decided, with Allah's support, to make a better way for all of us.

I reached out to a friend of mine from school who studied linguistics. He taught himself to speak 6 languages and had gone on to help develop translation algorithms for some of the leading tech companies. He shared with me what he had found to be the most effective language learning techniques after years of his own trial and error. These are based on the most cutting-edge research about how we learn languages: Dr. Krashen and Dr. Lewis's theories of learning language by direct exposure (without long hours spent memorizing boring grammar rules), and spaced repetition algorithms to ensure you remember what you've learned with the absolute least effort possible. I turned to building an application around these tried-and-proven techniques to learn language as easily as possible.

And so Iqraa was born: the world's first and most effective app for learning to read the Quran in Arabic, entirely at your own pace and automatically tailored to your personal needs. Whether you've never studied Arabic at all before, you already know the basics, or you already speak Arabic in daily life but need help understanding the sublime Arabic of the Quran - Iqraa is here to help you start reading and understanding the original Message of Allah, in Arabic, from day one!

Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who taught by the pen - taught humanity what they knew not.


-Youssef