 فالله على يسيدنا محمد الفاتح لما أولق والخاتم لما صباب ناصل الحقي بالحقي والهادي لسطاب المجترقين وعلى آلية حق قدرين ومقدار العظيم فالله مستحرين أفتوح العاريسين وفقنا توفيق الصالحين ومسعنا الله ما بالكوراني وده الحكيم اللهم علمنا ما ينسعنا ومسعنا بما علمتنا وجدنا علما وعملا المتقبلا ومحالة الموجود الكريم اللهم لا سهلة إلا ما جاءته مسهلة وأنت تجعل الحزنة إذا شدت سهلة اللهم عيدنا مشهول أن تشعر مشريقة عمالينا وأصلحنا أشعرنا كله لا إله إلا أنت لسطابك ونطبق إليك وزو الله على يسيدنا محمد وعلى آلية وصحة ورسلة حسنًا، إنشاء الله we will start by introducing you so we have today Sarah Maryam Amir she has received her Master's Degree in Education from UCLA she holds a second Bachelor's Degree in Islamic Studies through and as her university Sarah Maryam has studied in Asia, memorized the Qur'an and has researched a variety of religious studies ranging from Qur'anic as a business, Islamic jurisprudence prophetic narrations and commentary women's rights within Islamic law and more for the past 15 years she holds a second degree Black Delta Type 1 وإنشاء الله and speaks multiple languages we will be discussing the Qari'a app إنشاء الله today it is an app that released in Ramadan about 60 women reciders on the app I'm not mistaken and I'm all over the world so it's a pleasure to meet with you today thank you for the new time I have a busy schedule to answer some questions thank you it's such a great honor الحمد لله to have a conversation about Qari'a specifically الحمد لله thank you so we'll get started with the first question كيف تصدق بحديث في قرآن وماذا ترونه بابت الحمد لله رب العالمين وصلاة والسلم وعلى رسول الله عندما كافت وحفظ I had a lot of emphasis from my parents about loving Allah's Panawata A'la but I didn't really feel a connection with Islam in general and I didn't know if I wanted to identify as a Muslim and I think like a lot of young people I was trying to figure out who I was ما كانت my beliefs. الحمد لله I had the incredible honor of going to Mecca and when I came back, I just wanted to hold on to that relationship with Allah. That experience helped me realize I want to know who he is and so I started reading the Quran and that was the very first time I really read the Quran for myself. I had not touched the Quran at that point for many years and I could barely read it in Arabic and I didn't understand what I was reading. And when I started reading in the Arabic, I really struggled because I hadn't even attempted reading Arabic in years. It would take me hours to read even a little bit. And so my mom suggested I read it in the translation and that is when my life changed. Reading the Quran in translation, being able to understand the message of Allah ﷻ to me helped me want to just know it more and memorize it and live it and love it and teach it. And it was an addicting experience. It is a lot just going to school and then coming home and reading words that mirrored my experience at school. I just felt like Allah ﷻ was with me and that he knew what I was going through and that he was there to care for me and support me. And as a young person, especially those experiences are huge. They are fundamental but also just the miracle of the Quran, the miraculous nature of the language. When I learned Arabic and learned the power of the words themselves, the way that just the language of the Quran itself is a miracle. The secrets within the Quranic rhetoric, the structure, everything is just so powerful. So that was really the start of my journey. And I think that many people might have a story of starting. They're starting and they're excited. They're starting and they want to begin. And they have these moments where they're like so into the Quran. But then a lot of times I'm asked the question about what if I used to be that way and I've changed? What if I felt that way at one point but I've dipped? And I hear this a lot too. And I know that we all go through ups and downs in our lives. But the one thing with the Quran is that it's always there for us even when we struggle. And that's what I felt in my life. That there are times where my connection with the Quran is not the same as I want it to be. It's not where I want it to be. And there are times in my life where I have felt nothing weightier than the guilt of not doing the Quran that I want to do. And so when I share with you like when you ask me what is my relationship with the Quran? I would say it's a relationship. It is literally a relationship. Like any relationship for all of us. There are times where we are so devoted to someone. And then there are times where because of something that we're going through. We step back for a minute and we reevaluate. How do I reconnect with this person? How do I work through something that I'm going through? In my relationship with this person. And so when I'm looking at the Quran. Sometimes I sit back and I think what am I supposed to do in my relationship right now? Of course, there are certain things like reviewing aspects of the Quran. There are reviews. There are reciting to a teacher. I still work with the teacher daily. I still review all the time. That's a journey. That's forever. But then there are other aspects. Like what about listening in a particular way? What about contemplating in a particular way? And I think like any relationship, there are going to be things that we maybe need to do to, you know, build aspect of a relationship that we haven't yet learned about. The Quran is never a book that we can know fully ever. There's always something to learn and to grow and to know. And so I would describe it as a constantly growing relationship. That there are times that I sit back and re-evaluate what I need to do to grow in my relationship with the Quran. And it's a dua that I'm making. And I completely understand when people say, you know, that there were times in their lives where they felt so connected. And other times that they didn't. I've gone through that too. But Alhamdulillah for the honor that the Quran always loves. Allah always loves for us to recite the Quran. And He always loves to hear our voice reciting the Quran. And knowing that Alhamdulillah, even when I feel unworthy of the Quran, I feel like I know that He loves for me to go back to it. And so Alhamdulillah, it's something that I'm trying. And how did your love for the Quran and for reciting the Quran and listening to the Quran grow and develop? You know, I think there are so many different aspects of building a relationship and one of the things that I used to do, even when I couldn't really understand, is I would hold the Quran like a hug. I would just hold it and just like hold it to my heart. I would, when I would sleep, I would put it next to me in bed just so that I could be physically near it. And the reason why I share that with you is because a lot of people when coming to the Quran may approach it from a place of having had trauma in the past or not knowing how to open the book or not even knowing where to begin. And I want to share that because I think physical touch is a really important aspect of building a relationship with a book that we can, Insha'Allah, truly take as our best friend when we don't have the words or when we don't have the ability to even express how we feel. We can just hug it. We can hold it. We can lie down and put it next to us and put our hand on it and just know that it's close to us. My teacher, شيخ محب فوضى, he always talks about how just looking at the Mus'haf is worship. Longingly gazing at the Quran is worship. Holding the Mus'haf itself is worship. That love that you express simply by the physical touch of the Mus'haf, it's a form of worship. And so that was one aspect of it. It was just spending physical time with the book itself. Going to the beach and holding the Mus'haf on a walk on the beach. Going to a cafe and drinking some tea and just holding the Mus'haf there. That experience, it's an experiential experience. It's not just a book that I'm going to read super fast while I'm sitting in a corner in my room. That's one aspect of it, yes. But also take the Quran out with you. Hold it and go out with it. It's worship to love holding it. So that's one aspect, I think. The other aspect was really being able to focus on the understanding. Again, I didn't know what I was reciting in the beginning and reading it in the translation was what changed my life. And so as I was memorizing the Quran, I was sometimes memorizing it without knowing what I was saying. And sometimes I was reading the English translation and just trying to understand how those words apply to my life. A lot of times when I was memorizing, I was trying to think of the way that this verse actually applies to my day-to-day. Or how did the companions experience this verse or what did the companions do for this verse and imagining the Quran and that experiential way of what was it like when it was revealed. How does this apply to me right now? These things helped me with actually feeling like I am seeing the Quran, feeling the Quran, living with the Quran. So just understanding. Of course, reading تفصير. Now that I do speak and understand Arabic, I read تفصير all the time. So commentaries of the Quran. What does this verse actually mean? And that of course just deepens my love for the Quran because when you read the words themselves, they're so powerful. But then when you read the words and you are understanding what the context for the revelation is, especially I would say as a woman, for me, that was so transformative. And one of the aspects that really increased this connection for me was the way that my teacher شيخ مهد فوضل taught me to recite the Quran as a woman specifically. Because so many of my teachers in the past had focused on memorization, had focused on review. But his focus was on as a woman the Quran is for you. As a woman the Quran loves to hear your voice as a woman the Quran loves to have a relationship with someone who comes to it and comes with everything to it. And that aspect of helping me see the Quran as my worship as a believer who's a woman really shifted a particular aspect of the connection that had with the Quran. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for asking. Why did you decide to develop the Qari'a app and what was your visions and hopes for that? Qari'a is, as you mentioned a woman of Quran reciters app. Alhamdulillah, we have over 60 women from around the world on the app. Typically abled women, disabled women. Alhamdulillah, we have women from all different backgrounds, countries, realities. It's been such a gift and an honor to bring so many different voices. And when I first was thinking about the app there were a number of different objectives. So one of them was just showcasing women who are expert Quran reciters myself not included everyone else. All of the women are women who are just these are these are women who when you listen to them you can tell that they have spent years and years and years honing the art of recitation. And these are women who masha'Allah many of them have won on international stages many times over many of them have recited on television and competitions where they are the judges of the competition. So masha'Allah that the level of recitation is not something I was exposed to growing up for a woman. The only woman I heard growing up reciting the Quran was actually well one my mother حمد الله may Allah bless her but many of us have that story masha'Allah where we've heard our moms masha'Allah recited the Quran and that's such such a gift for many of us who've experienced it and it's a point of sadness for those who haven't and those who wish that they had experienced it and may Allah bless all of our mothers and then we have حمد الله in our community masha'Allah women who would recite the Quran in a women's setting where they were teaching so I heard you know in a women's section a more quiet voices reciting the Quran these were not loud voices of recitation they were quiet voices together which was beautiful and amazing but I you know that experience is different from hearing a woman recite on stage with other women in a competition for women's recitation or even for women and men's recitation which is normal all around the world and I had not experienced that I had never even seen that existed and so for me what really was the objectives of the app was to help women and little girls specifically grow up with a 5 year old a 6 year old a 10 year old a 12 year old grow up saying yes I've heard women recite the Quran from all over the world yes some of them have very deep voices some of them have very light voices some of them the range of voices are all in between something I struggled with Allah is my voice is very deep when I recite I'm reciting men reciders who are amazing who are our teachers من شاوي عبدالباصر حسري you cannot get better than them may Allah have mercy on all of them these are our teachers but as a woman trying to mimic their voice I my voice is very deep because of it and I'm always being told soften your voice try to soften it try to enlighten it and I'm like how I don't know how I've been trying to mimic men's recitation for so long but now Alhamdulillah being able to hear a woman whose voices are similar pitches to mine I've been trying to work on enlightening my voice and sounding more natural sounding more like a flowy recitation but beyond just reciting like other women it's really سبحان الله being able to see women recite can help you know that you can do it too and that was really one of the the ultimate objective of the app was to help women know they can be women of the Quran when I was traveling throughout the UK I was giving lectures in all these different cities myself and Dr. Jinan Yusuf who's the author of reflecting on the names of Allah an incredible book connecting the names of Allah with your daily life so I really recommend reflecting on the names of Allah by Dr. Jinan Yusuf she and I were traveling from one city to the next and it were all women's all women's events and I was reciting the Quran and all of these events for women and سبحان الله the amount of women that came to me afterwards just absolutely emotional saying this is the very first time they've ever heard a woman recite the Quran and had they known that woman could recite the Quran that they too would have tried to follow being Quran reciders they so many of them told me that they were singers in their high school choir or they were mothers and they were singing lullabies to their children and they love singing but they had no idea that a woman could also recite the Quran and I know that sounds silly because we think well we all know that the Quran is for men and women but when you couple that knowledge with oh but one day a woman is not going to become an Imam she's going to forget the Quran that's simple oh one day a woman is going to become a mother potentially and she's not going to have time to review and it's simple to forget the memorization so she shouldn't memorize in the first place oh she's never going to lead so where is she going to be reciting I've heard those statements from women so often the culture surrounding men's recitation is one where men are encouraged men have so many role models of who they can be men have so many different tones intonation he sounds like me I'm going to follow quite literally hundreds if not thousands of options a woman don't many women many women don't even know one not even one and so when we don't see who we can be sometimes we don't even know we can be them going through the UK honestly was a turning point for me because I I know that I haven't really heard women reciting except for in those wonderful circles where we recited kind of quietly and I know that I've been through events when I traveled like when I went to Sweden Canada different places women and they're telling me we've never heard a woman recite you're the first person we've heard and when I'm hearing this over and over in these random countries I'm thinking okay that's a theme but then when I went to the UK and it was hundreds of women in every event every day it's a new city and it's the same exact message at that point I was like this is this is something we need to change and it's like Nigeria Morocco Singapore Malaysia Gambia Yemen there are countries all over the world Tanzania there's a panel a woman's recitation if not as a culture throughout the whole country is the norm there are aspects of that country where it's the norm so when I was exposed to hearing about the norm of all of these different countries where women are reciters they grow up from the time school here we have P.E. as an option not as an option but we take P.E. physical education we have to take it in school and then some schools have options you can take home ec or you can take auto shop or you can take all these different options as your extra curricular assignments or classes for school in those countries there you know for example in Singapore is Sara Ateqa Sohimi who is one of the reciters on the app so مقامات is like making their recitation you know certain levels the emotion that comes through and recitation she said that when you are in elementary school little girls and little boys they are taking مقامات it's a school subject إسفان الله their recitation is the next level it's not the recitation of someone who's reciting to a sheikh like me it's a recitation of someone who you are seeing the verses revealed when you're listening to these voices that's their culture from the time their little girls they are being exposed to the encouraging culture of women little girls hearing women recite their teachers are women who are reciting like this إسفان الله we see who they produce we see who is produced from cultures like this and so for me realizing that so many women have never even seen women reciting just like me where I had an either that's when I started the campaign online it was called the four mothers campaign where we were reciting the Quran and as we were reciting the Quran on Instagram I was asking other women to share their recitations and that I would share their recitations so Alhamdulillah we started creating this experience where women were hearing other women and it was very clear that this is for women any man is welcome to block me to scroll past and you don't need to look at the page it's a responsibility on men not to listen there's a difference of opinion there's a difference of opinion sheikh bin Baz himself has a festival where it's allowed for men to listen to the recitation of women so this is a discussion that's been going on since centuries ago we have these are scholars who existed in the 700 and the 1100 from the centuries ago have been discussing women's recitation and the permissibility or when we mentioned it so this isn't a new discussion but I shared that this is for women by women and it's targeted to women and so subhan Allah so many women I mean thousands of women were listening and that experience of hearing from women receiving messages from women that this isn't just impacting their Quran they're starting to pray they're starting to you know worship a lot in ways that they hadn't ever in the past or that they hadn't in a really really long time and Alhamdulillah because of that I started interviewing these women from around the world asking them to share their stories and the more that women shared their stories the more that my questions went from are women actually given a role in Islam for Muslim women these are the questions I constantly get doubts from Muslim women about women's roles in Islam and they shifted to saying things like I used to think that but after seeing all these women that you've interviewed from all around the world reciting the Quran I know that Alhamdulillah messages like that made me realize that it needs to go beyond just my Instagram page it needs to become something that's accessible to women everywhere that has nothing to do with me but that just makes Quran accessible for women no matter where they are and so Alhamdulillah the next step was creating the app and the objectives one of just helping so many women inshallah access women's recitation but also two to be a place of healing because like I mentioned so many of those questions were why aren't women 100 in Islam from women Muslim women were asking me this question hundreds of women and now Alhamdulillah just being able to have that question shift and say now I feel like we are now I see that we are maybe my experiences haven't reflected that as a person who might live in a particular area but we can see that women from around the world are in these spaces they are the teachers in these spaces they are the judges in these spaces so to me that I'm grateful to say has been a means of healing for so many of us Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah it's great to have opportunities here because I think that's what blocks people from they don't have the knowledge they don't have access to people who are sharing these things with them Absolutely Subhanallah from an app development perspective how do you even go about starting with this idea especially how do you even start it out like where do you go Subhanallah yes that was that was the question because I I was not involved in tech by any stretch of imagination so I had no idea I last Ramadan in Ramadan 2021 I was making just Subhanallah the idea of Qariah came and Ramadan of 2021 and I was making I was making I was making I was making I was making I was making I was making I was making I was making I was making I was making at the end of Ramadan I started looking for how to begin you know putting together an app we started contacting different people asking if they know any developers and at that time I didn't know anyone who could develop an app like this I kept asking until Alhamdulillah there was a brother who wants to stay unnamed he's very very humble but he's involved with one of the major apps and sites Mashallah it's it's an incredible effort and so I contacted him and asked him if he knows of a developer and he recommended he recommended working with are you good your voice is gone though oh sorry my wifi went out oh no problem should I go back though it's up to you I think it's still recorded so okay alright yeah so he recommended working with someone whose name is Shadi Shadi Shadi Shadi is the developer for Qariah Mashallah he is an incredible developer and it's only by Allah's gift and mercy that we were connected with him because he's not just a developer he is someone who's very invested in the message he's very invested in the idea and so may Allah bless him he invested countless hours night and day he lives in Dubai and he would call me for doing meetings he would be working at 2 am 3 am we would just in this panel as we were releasing the app there was so much we needed to finish and we just sit for like 5 hours straight working together on the different types of aspects that we needed to deal with on the app and it's like 4 in the morning his time and he's been working all day and all night his panel on May Allah bless him he was just so committed to this call he was just so committed to this cause of helping women access the Quran he has a daughter may Allah bless him and so especially as a father with a daughter I think knowing that things shift for you as a parent as any parent especially looking at your children and what resources are available to them may Allah bless him so much and so for him being able to connect with him and say this is what we want to develop and he had already developed a Quran and he has an app called the Bridges International app and he's he's done a number of different apps as well and so because Shadi had already developed a Quran app with many different rewires of the Quran and a recitation of the Quran Dr. Fadil Soleiman had already wanted to include a woman's recitation so they had been reciting a recording with Sheikha Zaynab Talha who is on our app as well doing some of this work so Shadi had already been familiar with some of the aspects of the app that we wanted to do so الحمد لله being connected with him was the opening and then there was so much to learn for me as someone who had not been involved in any of this like what is a UX design so much of what I need to develop we would write the back end so as an app owner what do I want the app to do in this aspect consulting with as many people as possible to be able to get to what we want the app to just do and this is only the first stage there are so many things that we want the app to go towards الحمد لله the app has been only released for about seven weeks at this point so it's just the start of the of the beginning Insha'Allah but we spoke about the long term vision from that time from last year on what we want to do and then from there after working with him he created a back end so the back end is where we put up all the recitations if you open the app you're going to see every Qari'a has her picture information about her and then she has her recordings and so he developed the website where we put in all of that information so myself and and all of the team at Qari'a who are all volunteers may Allah bless every single one of them they are what we do is we receive the recordings from the reciders and then we do the editing and we do when Qari'a and she who sent the image of Anne I mean it's a very long picture and she didn't send it all in one piece of course she's sending it from Morocco it's being sent in different segments and so what we have to do is listen to all of it put it together and make sure there's no you know doubles sometimes when we're putting it together we might accidentally put it together too close and we slice out one letter then we have to start over and make sure that we خطيط إن I'm reciting here at home. And someone is walking in, you hear, you know, a door closing. We're trying our best to remove all of those sounds. Reciting a very long SooRa is going to have a lot of. So we're trying to remove all of that. It's a long process to do the editing and hamlillah after the editing then it's trying to make it sound more professional. Because we sent mics around the world. We sent mics to the Gambia and Yemen and Algeria and Morocco and to Algeria and Subhan Allah the majority of the mics did not work with the phones. حتى يوم before we sent them, we checked online to make sure we asked everybody, like what is your phone used and you know type and make. Does it work with this we send connectors to make sure it would all work. And every Mike has its own story I mean it took months to get Mike's to where they are now literally months. The only Mike package that didn't take as long as Morocco because there was a sister may Allah bless Enness . أحدا يPO��ون She is a friend of mine named Diana, she is studying in Egypt. She is an American who is studying there. She came back to America and when she came back she said she has a friend named Inaz who is visiting from Morocco and I was like like ... let's send Mike's with her Diana was so kind to ask Inaz, she was so generous to offer. It is a big thing to take a bunch of Mike's on an international trip, it's like no easy task. I mean, I am so blessed. فلنقوموا بالمكتب للمراكب ونقوموا بالمكتب لأغرياء بأن مراكب أمام أساعتهم. ونقوموا بالمكتب بشكل كبير. حمدلله ، بسبب المسكين في إناسسة أصبحت فنقوموا بالمكتب بمراكب. أمام المكتب في الطريق ومراكب حدثوا لهم، ولكن أمامهم لم يكن تقرأ. فهذا هو مراكب والفتاة. ولكن أن تقوموا بالمكتب في ألغيرة، مراكب وإلغيرة لا يوجد فتاة مسكين بينهم، حتى أنهم صريحين بهم. فالأقرية في ألجيريا أخبرني أن لا تقوم بعملها في مراكو لأن إذا كنت تقوم بعملها في مراكو ستكون سنوات ونوات ونوات ونوات before it gets to us and it may not get to us because of the male situation there حمد لله I posted on Instagram and I asked does anyone know anyone going to Algeria and this wonderful sister from Dubai told me that she is a brother who is going to Algeria from San Francisco سبحان الله I mailed the mics to him but he wasn't going for like another two months so by the time he left and then met the Qariahs in Algeria حمد لله we finally got the mics to them but the mics didn't work for them's panel there's a problem with the mic I don't know what is going on the mic to get into the Gambia Diana took one of the mics with her but first she went to Saudi then she went to Egypt then she had to hand it off to someone from Egypt who's going into the Gambia so then that person went into the Gambia and then that person had to meet someone else in the Gambia and then Yemen is a war zone so getting the mic into Yemen it was a relief organization called Mercy Relief an amazing organization Mercy Relief is masha'Allah a trusted incredible organization where they work directly on the ground they are helping the people of Yemen directly and they are a verified organization from the UK so حمد لله we know that they're working very closely with the people and they're working to make sure that the funds are not frozen or something like that in the process so masha'Allah may Allah bless blessed أسد محمد from Mercy Relief he bought the mic himself and then it started its many months journey I think to get the mic to Yemen took 6 months because by the time he got it and then went through one country after the next one country after the next that mic has a very long journey before I got into Yemen so and then once I got into Yemen it took a while to get to the Qariah in Yemen every single person had their own journey with the mic but despite all of this as I mentioned multiple times حمد لله most of them didn't work so what we did instead is had the Qariahs use their phones but of course the phones in every place is different the quality and what the accessibility is all very different so what we try to do is we try our best to make it sound like a professional mic on our end so we're not trying to add an echo to make the voice echoey for an effect we're just trying to make it sound not tinny because when you record on your phone it can sound very tinny so we try to change the recording a little bit so that it sounds like as if it's coming from a professional mic and obviously I learned GarageBand when I was trying to do the Four Mothers campaign GarageBand is an editing program for Mac and then Saadia Hassan knows Audacity and so she's doing Audacity neither of us are professional we're not sound engineers we're not like DJs we don't we're trying our best and Mashallah there was a brother who is a professional sound engineer who gave us a training who helped us try to learn you know how to like improve in that but it's a journey we're at the very beginning we're all volunteers inshallah a long term we're only going to get better but Hamdallah I'm very very grateful that the reception has been so so wonderful Hamdallah I just saw our patient say that they're the new recitation from someone it's really fun getting with her oh I'm glad that you get the push notifications Hamdallah Hamdallah Hamdallah I think we just went on this a little bit earlier but who was the target audience of your app women men or everyone women are the target audience women are the the you know the app the app is by women for women it's women's recitations for women one of the slogans of the app is finally a Quran app for our daughters and so really women are the are the target audience of the app of course there are going to be men who hear women's reciting for example if I'm listening to recitations as I'm editing them and then they're out loud my husband is going to hear there are men in you know different homes who are going to hear and again one the majority of the app reciders are public reciders in their country they recite on television with their sheikh or they are the of the sheikh and they are reciting on television and it's part of their you know the scholars of their countries approve this and they support this based on the Fiqh and we have a Fiqh you know clarification on Qariah you can go to www.Q A R I H .APP Qariah.app and that website has an FAQ you can look at the frequently asked questions we go through all the Fiqh and the different discussions of the scholars if anyone would like to learn more Insha Allah but the majority of these reciders are public reciders in their countries when I told them when I first announced the app it was in January of 2022 I had a video where I'm so grateful I was in in Mecca I took a video in front of the Kaaba and I shared the announcement of the app and Hamdallah it was met with so much support so much excitement this belief from so many people like are you serious a woman's app just for a woman I can't even believe this is real and I think a lot of people told me that they expected to hear like 5 or 6 women they had no idea that there were so many we're adding more as well Insha Allah but the there was also people who said what are you talking about an app for women of Quran you already have men why do you need women like what is this like just this like confusion and women shouldn't this is an app for women it's for women we still got that and when I told this to the Qariahs in the different countries their reaction was but why why would they say women shouldn't recite in front of men they had never heard this before these are women who are women of Quran Hafidahs of Quran Ijazah in Quran they teach Quran they work with Quran scholars all the time they are scholars sometimes even in Fiqh and Hadith and Subhan Allah they said so many of them were like we've never heard that before what do you mean women shouldn't recite in front of men where does that come from and when I told one of the Qariahs from Morocco she said she's going to go to the senior scholars of Morocco who make the tawa and ask them about this and all of the senior scholars of Morocco who make the tawa their reaction was how could they say that men shouldn't listen to women of course women and men can listen to Quran together their reaction was why would they say this which to me was so shocking because that's not what you know both of us probably haven't grown up with that type of reaction so one most of these women recite publicly in the first place that's the first thing from the Fiqh there's a difference of opinion and their scholars of their countries don't have a problem with women reciting in front of men and so it's part of their cultural norm that being said this app is very shocking for people in our part of the world it is not the norm here and we are you know with all due respect and love and sincerity and sisterly goodness and dua to my brothers this app is not for men it's for women who don't have access to women's recitation now if a man is going to hear overhear it as a woman is playing the Quran and you know if a man honestly even if a man doesn't have access to the app like again there's a difference of opinion these women recite in front of men not a big deal but it's not targeted to men it's for women and it's for you know the boys and the girls who Insha'Allah will grow up with a new norm of of course you know women should be the Quran reciters this is part of what we've grown up with since we were little kids and women deserve to be you know in these spaces of Quran as well our goal is not to change a whole system that works for a particular country there are women who don't want men to hear their recitation there are women who don't want men to hear them reciting I'm not trying to suggest that women should recite in front of men at all I'm sharing that there's a difference of opinion in Fiqh in these countries they do that whatever works for that community or country great do that but this app is for women the change is for women to feel connected to the Quran for a woman to be able to recite the Quran to their children for a woman to say I grew up with my mother reciting the Quran as she was cooking and as she was as she was you know driving and as she was going to work she recited the Quran in this beautiful melodious voice and I miss that and I want that too being able to shift and of course not just mothers there are so many women who aren't mothers who are in contact with the Quran and that the generational impact of that I've had so many little girls through their you know their aunt or their their mom or someone send me a message and it's just the cutest thing to hear their voices sending me a voice on Instagram saying that they've memorized a Surah now or they want to be a Hafid of the Quran or they want to be a Qariah and the app just came out إن شاء الله that culture where these little boys and little girls are reciting together and they're reciting with their parents and they're excited to recite and they want to be Qariahs too little girls want to be Qariahs too and إن شاء الله I pray that that we can create that culture with إن شاء الله for sure and if they want to be reciters they don't have to be public reciters they could be they could do it for Allah's sake only of course absolutely I can do this in my own bedroom and Allah hears me and that's actually messages I've received multiple messages like that for the first time in a woman's life she's recited out loud in her bedroom for Allah and her sharing that's very different and you and I both know when we whisper in the Quran it's one thing when we recite out loud it's another it's a different experience and women deserve that experience privately in her own room with no one else in the house she deserves that but was the reception of the app and how has the app evolved so far so I was very worried that the reception was not going to be excited because we have you know a five-year plan for the reciters to record the Quran you know every reciter may Allah bless her so we have two ways that the app goes one is the reciters which I'm in touch with every single one of them personally except for the ones who have passed away may Allah have so and so the ones who are with us here I'm in touch with every single one of them personally and they send me their recordings whenever they can record them and we have a five-year plan with the majority of them إن شاء الله or most of them that إن شاء الله in five years will be able to complete you know many women completing the Quran but five years is a long time from now so I mean you're in the app and you're waiting for updates every day so that's one aspect that they're sending in the recordings the other aspect is that many of them have already recorded many surahs or many verses and so they've all given us permission to take what they've previously recorded so that we can include it in the app so a lot of the recitations you might see you can also find if you the thing is so the search itself I mean that was a months and months and months process of finding all the recordings that someone has one verse on YouTube one surah on Facebook you know another one on Instagram another one on TikTok that experience all the volunteers may Allah bless all of them they put in so much work to be able to get all of these recordings from each reciter and so like one aspect of it is getting all these recordings on from you know from social media and the other one is doing the recordings editing the recordings that we're getting so that everybody is directly however I was very concerned that people are going to open the app women are going to open the app and they're going to see every one has one surah two surahs five verses it's not the whole most happy only person who has the whole most happy is Hajim we all bless her so much and she's done that recording from years ago and so everyone else is recording when we look at apps where we have men's recitations you know a lot of these apps are just taking what's already online they're not working directly doing the editing putting it into the app that's a whole process so I pray Insha'Allah the Qariah is the first of many to have you know women's recitations accessible but we are the first and so I was worried that people are going to open it and say there's not that much available you know why doesn't every Qariah have the entire Quran why aren't there was a whole journey to get Qariahs from as many countries as possible and to have them be qualified and to recite Allahu Akbar I mean it was such a journey may Allah accept it from everybody so I was worried about all of those things like I was worried about the design about the color about the logo oh my God everything Subhan Allah and then the app came out and the reception I just I'm so grateful I'm so grateful everyone has been so excited everyone has been so emotional just the messages I'm receiving from the way the app has impacted the the next generation it's just been such a huge gift to all of us who are working on the app Alhamdulillah so Alhamdulillah the reception has been amazing Mashallah I expected a lot of pushback honestly I was preparing for a pushback we had the FAQ ready on Qariah.app to make sure that if anyone had an issue with the Fiq we could say read the Fiq you can read it but everyone was just so supportive and encouraging and the few people who said something like why are women reciting when men can over here you know there would be a throng of people who were who were responding to that and saying men shouldn't download the app in the first place they just shouldn't download the app Alhamdulillah I'm so grateful to say that the reception has been so supportive so encouraging so positive and now that the app has been out for about 7 weeks maybe 8 weeks now at this point 7 to 8 weeks now people are saying why isn't there more where are the recording so Alhamdulillah the initial reception was really exciting but now in terms of where there are more the Qariahs are recording Alhamdulillah you saw today that there was a recitation added Insha'Allah this week more will be added as well so Insha'Allah that's going to be a rolling process in terms of the additions Alhamdulillah I'm so grateful that so far it's been a wonderful beautiful reception Alhamdulillah Do you have any advice for those who are struggling in there for engineering whether it's reading any advice for someone who's struggling yes so the very first piece of advice I would suggest is make your intention your intention what is your intention a lot of people shall go with sincerity they worry that okay if I start and then I memorize and is it going to be sincere for Allah I would say the fact that you even want to start is a wonderful demonstration of your sincerity you want to start for the sake of Allah Alhamdulillah of course you know sit with your sit in your room make a dua ask Allah to make you sincere ask Allah to make you successful and make your intention do you want to memorize the whole Qur'an and you might hear this at this point and say no not right no I'm not ready for that okay what is your intention do you want to just know the Qur'an do you want to live with it do you want what is it make that intention and know that even if you do not fulfill when it is not meant for you to to finish this life with that goal fulfilled Allah will write you as if you've done it which is why I suggest you make the intention that you want to memorize the Qur'an because even if you don't finish but you work towards it Allah will count you as if you did because you're working towards it إن شاء الله so the first is your intention and the second is make dua to Allah in your Sajdah make dua as you're walking in the rain make dua when you are fasting make dua all the time everywhere all in every Allah pray that Allah opens the doors of the Qur'an for you just keep making dua and do good deeds for the sake of the Qur'an this is something that my teacher who I was in Egypt with before I met Shaykh محب أسرة she shared with me do good deeds for the Qur'an give صدق and make dua O Allah make my Qur'an successful because of this do something and you say like you know cook for your family and O Allah make the Qur'an because of the deed that I'm doing so you make the intention that you know the good that you do is for the sake of the Qur'an and then work with a teacher O Subhan Allah the amount of times you know it took me seven years to memorize the Qur'an because every single time I would start with a teacher something would happen and she would have to stop working with me so I would begin and I'd get a little far and then all of a sudden I couldn't work with the teacher anymore she moved away you know O Subhan Allah and finding a new teacher took many months and then finally I would find a new teacher and then that teacher was starting me all over from the beginning again it was a very long journey because of this but at the same time the very first teacher I ever worked with she asked me do you want to memorize the Qur'an or do you want to memorize it correctly and I was like I just want to memorize it I want to memorize I don't want to take anytime having to learn how to do it so then you have to restart and I was like solid okay that's good so then we started with the Qaeda which you know many people are aware of it's just you start the the letters and you know the pronunciation and then it's a journey to start so anyway be patient it's a journey it can take you seven years it can take you 20 years or it can take you one but if you're able to say that you started 20 years of my life I have been dedicating my life to memorizing the Qur'an it's a panel 20 sweet years there's nothing to regret there's nothing to regret when you spend those sweet sweet years memorizing the Qur'an or trying to understand the Qur'an or learning the Qur'an or reciting the Qur'an whatever your Qur'an goals are so be patient know that it can take time and work with a teacher even if that means you have to stop then you find anyone maybe your journey of starting and stopping and stopping and stopping is going to lead you to the right teacher for you and Alhamdulillah I'm so grateful for every single teacher that helped me through the process but شيخ مهبفودة was the Mashallah the most incredible teacher who is the most incredible teacher who I'm so grateful for not only because of what he taught me of memorization but what he taught me of loving the Qur'an and living the Qur'an and so that you need to take to inshallah get to your completion so make sure you work with a teacher and have a support group you know find a friend or find a sister there are online support groups sound like like like Mashallah a whole group just focused on women's Qur'anic recitation and learning Islam and they have such an incredible support system and there's also a whole system of support of women you know so inshallah if you're able to find these support systems and inshallah in your journey they'll be able to help you in the process as well stay motivated stay you know when those times when you feel down there were so many times in my memorization and especially in the continuous review journey where I just feel down and I remember one time I told my teacher I feel so down like you know I keep trying to memorize this the surah and I'm not able to memorize it and she said you know are stopping you from your memorization and at that time I was living in Egypt and I was like all I do is go and study Arabic and I come home and I memorize Qur'an all I do I go to Arabic class I come home and memorize Qur'an I go to Arabic class there's no time there's no time to do anything else so it's like I'm doing more worship than I've ever done in my life because I don't have to go to school I don't have to work all I do is Arabic and Qur'an so she was like I don't know I don't know what to tell you why you would be having trouble if it's not a sin and I was like what am I doing am I not doing enough ذكر but I'm doing more ذكر than I've ever done in my life like what is going on and then I talked to a friend of mine who had already finished memorizing who was studying at that time in Egypt her name is فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية فرحية الليلت و you don't have enough Eman you're just too sinful and of course, there's absolutely a truth to some of that of course, we all need more Eman. We all need to do more righteousness. We all need to repent but also sometimes we're doing all as much as we can and we still don't feel like we have it. And you might just you might just be struggling emotionally work with a therapist. Go out with some friends. Take a minute to take a breath and then come back to it. And and having the support system يمكنك المساعدة لكي تذكر هذا. نعم. شكراً لك. أعتقد أن أعلم الكثير من المشاكل بأن أحدهم يتكلمون المتكلمون عن المساعدة ويقوموا بعملهم بسرعة. أخبرني كيف سأخذك؟ لا أعلم. أعلم كيف سأخذ أعلم كيف سأخذك. كما أبدأ عندما أخذت 3 وقلت 18. كيف سأخذك؟ أعتقد أن أخذك. أعتقد أن لا أعلم كيف سأخذك. وعلى أكثر. أعلم في السابقة أنت مؤسسي. أعلم كيف سأخذك؟ أعلم أنني أخذت 3 وقلت 18. إنه حقاً so many. إنه حقاً بصوت أكبر. كيف سأخذك؟ أسلحف أخذ بسكة لقد أردت خطوة. لكن أنا أراك في فيديو سراتك عن مؤسسي وملاحظ. لقد قمت بطرق أو قمت بطرق وقمت بطرق والأول شيء that came to your mind was a lot like you said a lot of screaming so the question is how did you train yourself to react in that way rather than shouting out something else Okay, let me share with you where this comes from so you know in the moment and shalla when we're going to you know all of us every single human being is going to have a moment where we're going to go back to Allah's panel with and we all want that moment to be the Shahada we all want that moment to be remembering Allah سبحانه وتعالى but we can't have that in that moment unless we've lived it you know we are or have you know have tried our best to intend it have have just of course only Allah knows what he gifts every person but the intention the hope the desire for the for our دعاءة to be you know through our whole lives let that moment be one where we worship you where we say the words of the Shahada where we are where we are speaking about you know you سبحانه وتعالى we don't have control over ourselves in that very very we you know in that moment sometimes they come within a second you know sometimes yes maybe a person has been expecting it for many many years maybe a person has been expecting it for some time but what if you weren't what if it's sudden and Allah only knows and may Allah protect all of us and bless us all with the best khatima may Allah bless all of us with the best khatima but I thought سبحانه وتعالى how can you be prepared if you're not prepared and so what I started having my friends and family do was scare me I am so I am so easily surprised like I might know you are in the room and I might know you're like somewhere in the in the house and then but I don't know you're in the room and if I turn around into you I will I will be so shocked and so like I don't want my first reaction to be to scream I want my first reaction to be the Shahada or Allah أكبر or words of praising Allah سبحانه وتعالى and so what I started asking people to do is to do this like to just like you know scare me suddenly and what is my very first reaction going to be and so the reason why I shared that video I was on my longboard I hit a rock I flew off the longboard and the first thought I had was do not scream make ذكر and it should have been automatic where I don't even have that thought it should just automatically be ذكر but the fact that it takes time for you to train yourself people always ask me like oh you know how do you remember Allah more like I feel like I don't remember him enough it's literally training it's just training ourselves to remember Allah سبحانه وتعالى so it's making sure that when we are walking we are seeing of car when we are you know we're remembering Allah سبحانه وتعالى as we're doing anything we're just trying to the point that we don't even realize our lips are moving we don't even realize our finger is moving it's just doing it and we're like wow Allah not even wow not wow Allah أكبر Allah أكبر سبحان الله it's just my body is in such a natural state of remembrance that I don't even realize it's doing it it's unconsciously remembering Allah when I don't why are my lips moving because I'm making ذكر of course we want to be present when we are making ذكر we want to be present and know we say الحمد لله and we are sincerely thinking الحمد لله I also want our subconscious mind to just automatically go to Allah if we allow our subconscious mind to roam it's going to be everywhere at least mine mine is going to be everywhere it's going to be on what I ate yesterday to my biggest and greatest fears happening tomorrow every it's going to be everywhere Wow what did that person really mean when they said that did I do that wrong everywhere so instead why not train our subconscious mind to remember Allah سبحانه وتعالى in the moments where we are doing our routine and in the moments when we're shocked and surprised that our first reaction is to remember him and that I pray I pray I pray I pray that will allow us to live the I عوض بالله من الشيطان و جيب اسمه الرحيم قل إنه صولاتي و نوسكي و محياي و مماتي لله رب العالمين that my sacrifice my dying my living my prayer everything is for Allah سبحانه وتعالى it is for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and that truly whatever we do until those final moments until that final moment is remembering Allah سبحانه وتعالى may Allah سبحانه وتعالى honor us with that and make us those people at me and thank you so much for taking time out of your day to meet with us and answer some questions it was such an honor truly جزاك الخير and for highlighting and for highlighting women's recitation for other women may Allah bless you so much and bless you خرقان حافظة اللهم جعلت لأني نبيكم بنا و نمي شبوري و جلاء أهجنة سبحانه وتعالى و بحمدك شكرا و الله إلهي إلا أنت السافر كولاتي و بيوضب حكولة فيك سلام عليكم و رحمة الله