What’s new
What has changed in Sabīl, newest first.
More editions of the Qur’ān’s meaning
- 5 more Urdu translations and a second each in Malay and Somali, as the Tanzil Project distributes them, and 2 more Arabic tafsīrs from QuranEnc. Choose one in the reader. They are shown unchanged, and Sabīl’s language panels have not reviewed them.
A Waṣiyyah builder
- The Waṣiyyah builder is now a tool: choose your school, say what you wish to leave, and it sets out a draft and says what your school’s book says of it. It is a draft no lawyer has checked, it may not be valid where you live, and nothing you enter is kept.
A Farā’iḍ calculator
- The Farā’iḍ calculator is now a tool: choose your school, say who survives the deceased, and it gives each one’s share from a named book of that school, with the book’s words for each line. Nothing you enter is kept.
The farḍ ʿayn path has its first lessons
- The farḍ ʿayn path on Learn now has lessons in its three levels. Each is a list of the library’s entries, shown word for word, in an order an AI proposed and no scholar has checked. 6 lessons have entries; the other 18 stay empty for now and say why.
Mosques and institutes have a page of their own
- Mosques and institutes that teach in public have moved from Teachers to a page of their own, under Learn. More have been added, each with its free series, and more teachers too.
- The list is not a recommendation, and no scholar of Sabīl’s has reviewed it. A link opens YouTube or the place’s own site, outside Sabīl.
The Arabic course begins its second stage
- The Arabic of the Qur’ān now has the first 5 lessons of its second stage, on roots and patterns, in English and Bengali: what a root is, the vowels of the first form of the verb, and forms IV, II and VIII, with the nouns built on them.
- Like the rest of the course, these lessons were written and checked by AI, and no teacher of Arabic has read them. More lessons of this stage are to come.
The first stage of the Arabic course, whole
- The Arabic of the Qur’ān now has all 30 lessons of its first stage, in English and Bengali: the word that describes a noun, the doer’s noun, what makes a noun definite, verbs of form IV, verbs that end in a long vowel, names, comparing two things, and the order of a sentence.
- Like the rest of the course, these lessons were written and checked by AI, and no teacher of Arabic has read them. The commonest words that carry the religion are taught with no meaning of the lesson’s own: you read their meaning in the verses.
A ḥayḍ & nifās calculator
- The ḥayḍ & nifās calculator is now a tool: choose ḥayḍ or nifās and your school, enter the days of bleeding, and it says what the library’s purity card says of them, school by school. Nothing you enter is kept.
A fidyah & kaffārah calculator
- The fidyah & kaffārah calculator is now a tool: say whether you missed fasts for a passing reason, cannot fast at all, or broke a fast deliberately, and it says what the library’s Ramaḍān card says is owed, school by school, with the cost of feeding at a price you enter. The card’s line on the order of the kaffārah now names the schools.
Travel mode
- Travel mode is now a tool: choose your school and enter how far the journey is, and it says what the library’s card on travel says of it: whether to shorten, whether shortening is required, and whether your school permits combining. Every rule is the card’s.
An ingredient checker
- The ingredient checker is now a tool: look up a food additive by its E-number or name and see what HalalLens’s analysis says of it, and why. Every status is HalalLens’s, not Sabīl’s, and what you type stays on this device.
A Ḥajj & ‘Umrah guide
- The Ḥajj & ‘Umrah guide is now a tool: the library’s title one stage at a time, with a counter for the seven circuits of the ṭawāf and the seven passages of the sa‘y. Two of its lines were corrected first: hunting is forbidden in iḥrām anywhere, and at Minā only the prayers of four rak‘ahs are shortened.
A Qaḍā’ tracker
- The Qaḍā’ tracker is now a tool: every prayer and fast you have marked as missed, in one place, with those you have made up. You can also enter how many of each prayer you missed before you kept a record here. It counts your own numbers, and says nothing of what is owed.
Each teacher has a page of their own, with their courses by stage
- Open a teacher on the Teachers page to see their courses in four stages: Essentials, Foundations, Deepening and Advanced study. Each course opens on its publisher’s site, outside Sabīl.
- A course stands in a stage only by the level its publisher gives it, and the publisher’s word is shown beside it; Sabīl places nothing itself. The first courses are Shaykh Faraz Rabbani’s; more teachers’ will follow.
Class link · Ḥalaqah kits
- Choose and order existing Sabīl material. The link carries the class name and material references, never a student’s progress. Share a new link when the path changes.
- Class paths you follow and their ticks are kept in this browser’s record. They are not synced to your account or sent to the teacher. Settings can export or erase them.
- Choose existing material for your circle. The lesson opens in its own reader with its review and translation notices. Handouts and posters are the library’s original PDFs in the English or Bengali edition; no new lesson text is written. Print the overview separately from those PDFs.
Teachers: where to learn from scholars online
- A new page, Teachers, lists scholars who teach in public, with a short note on each and links to their own YouTube channel and site. A link opens YouTube, outside Sabīl: nothing of YouTube is loaded inside the app.
- The list is not a recommendation, and no scholar of Sabīl’s has reviewed it. Each card names its sources and the day it was checked. More teachers will be added.
Shamāʾil al-Ḥabīb al-Muṣṭafā in Arabic
- Shaykh Muḥammad Abū al-Hudā al-Yaʿqūbī’s Shamāʾil al-Ḥabīb al-Muṣṭafā can now be read in Arabic, under Books: its 12 parts, 175 chapters and 500 narrations, with the pages of the printed edition marked where they begin.
- It is Shamela’s copy of a contemporary author’s book, shown as it stands, with no translation yet. The author reserves all rights and no permission has been asked; nobody has compared it with the printed book and no scholar has reviewed it, and each page says so.
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī’s creed in Arabic
- Imām aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī’s al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah can now be read in Arabic, under Books: its 105 statements as the edition numbers them, with the pages of the printed edition marked where they end.
- It is the text of the OpenITI corpus, from the edition of al-Albānī, shown as it stands, with no translation yet. Nobody has compared it with the printed book and no scholar has reviewed it, and the page says so.
Ash-Shamāʾil al-Muḥammadiyyah in Arabic
- Imām at-Tirmidhī’s ash-Shamāʾil al-Muḥammadiyyah can now be read in Arabic, under Books: its 56 chapters and 417 narrations, with their chains of transmission, in the edition’s numbering.
- It is the text of the OpenITI corpus, shown as it stands, with no translation yet. Nobody has compared it with the printed book and no scholar has reviewed it, and each page says so.
Counters on every Adhkār text, and Zakāt al-fiṭr
- Every Arabic text on the Adhkār screens now has a counter. Where the print gives a number the counter counts to it; where it gives none, it simply counts up. On a Friday, Today now says “After Jumuʿah” once the midday prayer has come in.
- Zakāt al-fiṭr is now a tool: enter the price of a kilogram and the number of people, and it works out the amount with the weights on the library’s card. It is arithmetic, not a ruling, and nothing you enter leaves this phone.
Five more tafsīrs, and the verses’ transliteration
- Under Books, as-Saʿdī’s tafsīr can now be read in Indonesian, Swahili, Russian and Albanian, and Ibn Kathīr’s in Russian, beside the ones already there: each passage beside the verses it explains, and each reached from a verse’s page.
- Under the verses of any tafsīr passage, their sound in Latin letters can be shown, as the Qur’ān’s reader shows it: the transliteration Tanzil distributes, switched on and off with the same choice.
- Three of the new texts are read from IslamHouse.com’s site of as-Saʿdī’s tafsīr and two are the Quranic Universal Library’s, shown as they stand. Sabīl wrote and translated none of them. Nobody has compared them with a printed book, the right to show them has not been verified, and no scholar has reviewed them, and each page says so.
The Iḥyāʾ in English, Turkish and Urdu
- Under Books, each book of the Iḥyāʾ now opens in English, in Fazlul Karim’s translation, in Turkish, in a text made on the basis of Ali Arslan’s translation, and in Urdu, in Dawateislami’s translation: each as its translator’s own text, with its own headings, beside the Arabic.
- The translations are their translators’, read from copies on the web and shown as they stand, with the faults of those copies: Karim’s English abridges the book, as he says. Sabīl has checked none against the Arabic, no scholar has reviewed them, and the right to show them has not been settled; each page says so.
Seven more tafsīrs in Arabic
- Under Books, beside the five Arabic tafsīrs, there are now seven more: as-Samarqandī, al-Māwardī, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, Ibn al-Jawzī, ath-Thaʿālibī, Abū as-Suʿūd and ash-Shawkānī, each passage beside the verses it explains, and each reached from a verse’s page.
- They are the Quranic Universal Library’s texts, shown as they stand, with no translation. Nobody has compared them with a printed book, the right to show them has not been verified, and no scholar has reviewed them, and each page says so.
The Qaida: reading the script
- The Arabic course now begins with a stage on reading the script: twenty lessons on the letters, each shown alone and in its shapes within a word, then the vowel marks and the muṣḥaf’s own signs, each shown on a letter, with words of the Qur’ān spelled out letter by letter, ending with al-Fātiḥah read letter by letter.
- Learn leads to it in place of the Qaida course that was listed as coming. The lessons were written and checked by AI, and say so.
Tafsīrs in Bengali, English, Urdu, Turkish and Persian
- Beside the Arabic tafsīrs under Books there are now tafsīrs in Bengali, English, Urdu, Turkish and Persian, among them Ibn Kathīr’s in English and Urdu and as-Saʿdī’s in Urdu, Turkish and Persian, each passage beside the verses it explains. A verse’s page links to what each tafsīr says of it.
- They are the Quranic Universal Library’s texts, shown as they stand. Sabīl wrote and translated none of them. Nobody has compared them with a printed book, the right to show them has not been verified, and no scholar has reviewed them, and each page says so.
Classical tafsīrs in Arabic
- The tafsīrs of Ibn Kathīr, aṭ-Ṭabarī, al-Qurṭubī, al-Baghawī and as-Saʿdī can now be read in Arabic, under Books: their commentary on every verse of the Qurʾān, sūrah by sūrah, each passage beside the verses it explains.
- The texts are the Quranic Universal Library’s, shown as they stand, with no translation yet. Nobody has compared them with a printed book, the right to show them has not been verified, and no scholar has reviewed them, and each page says so.
English beside the Jalālayn
- Tafsīr al-Jalālayn now has its English translation beside the Arabic, passage by passage: Feras Hamza’s, as published at altafsir.com. It can be switched off with the English layer.
- Nobody has compared this copy with the printed book and no scholar has reviewed the text, and each page says so. The English of two verses is left out, because it adds long passages that are not in the Arabic.
Tafsīr al-Jalālayn in Arabic
- The Tafsīr al-Jalālayn of al-Maḥallī and as-Suyūṭī can now be read in Arabic, under Books: the commentary on every verse of the Qurʾān, sūrah by sūrah, each passage beside the verses it explains.
- It is the text of the OpenITI corpus, from altafsir.com, shown as it stands, with no translation yet. Nobody has compared it with a printed book and no scholar has reviewed it, and each page says so.
Ash-Shifāʾ in Arabic
- Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ’s al-Shifāʾ can now be read in Arabic, under Books: its four parts and seventeen chapters, each cut into the sections the book itself is cut into, with the pages of the printed edition marked where they end.
- It is the text of the OpenITI corpus, from an edition that leaves out the chains of transmission, shown as it stands, with no translation yet. Nobody has compared it with the printed book and no scholar has reviewed it, and each page says so.
Twenty Arabic lessons
- The Arabic of the Qur’ān now has twenty lessons in English and Bengali: the command, having, the dual, words of place and time, if and when, questions, the commonest verbs and their forms, the passive and the broken plural.
- The twentieth lesson teaches the commonest words that carry the religion, giving them no meaning of its own: you read their meaning in the verses, and learn how the words are built.
Mark your Dalā’il reading
- On the Dalā’il al-Khayrāt page you can now mark each day’s reading as read, and see the last seven days at a glance. A day you leave blank takes nothing away: there is no streak to lose.
- The days you mark are kept only on this device, are never sent anywhere, and are not part of your account.
Five more Arabic lessons, and a review of their words
- The Arabic of the Qur’ān now has ten lessons in English and Bengali: the first verbs, the present and the future, the construct, gender and plural, and calling and likening, each with readings of real verses.
- Mark a lesson done and its words come back for review on a later day, sooner when you did not know them. Your lessons and words stay on this device and are never synced.
Books: a section for classical works
- Books is a new section for classical works. The Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, the Dalā’il al-Khayrāt and the Qaṣīdat al-Burdah now stand there, each with its own page of contents. The old addresses still open the same pages.
- Each work is shown as its source gives it, and every page says whose text it is and that no scholar has reviewed it. The print titles stay in the Library.
Lessons in the Arabic of the Qur’ān
- The first five lessons of a course in the Arabic of the Qur’ān are under Learn, written in English and Bengali: the words the Qur’ān uses most, in that order, with the grammar each next verse needs, and every verse shown with its meaning.
- The lessons were written and checked by AI, and no teacher of Arabic has read them yet; each one says so. The analysis of every word is the Quranic Arabic Corpus's.
The Dalā’il al-Khayrāt
- The Dalā’il al-Khayrāt can now be read under Adhkār: its eight parts, the opening and closing duas, the dua of intention and the lists of Names, in Arabic with a transliteration and translations. Each day the page shows the parts the source sets for that weekday.
- It is the text of dalailalkhayrat.com, shown as the site gives it. Nobody has compared the Arabic with a manuscript and no scholar has reviewed it, and each page says so.
The Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn in Arabic
- Al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn can now be read in Arabic, under Learn: its preface and its forty books, in four quarters, each cut into the sections the book itself is cut into. The pages of the printed edition are marked where they end.
- It is the text of the OpenITI corpus, shown exactly as it is there, with no translation yet. Nobody has compared it with the printed book and no scholar has reviewed it, and each page says so.
A new look: Aurora
- The main page of each part of Sabīl now stands on a soft wash of light in that part’s own colour, with turquoise and a warm glow beside it: green for Today, Salah, Adhkār, the Qur’ān and Ḥadīth, blue for Learn, purple for Tools and orange for Masjid. On those pages the cards are clear glass, lit along the top. What you read at length stays on plain paper. Nothing changes on sepia paper, on the black ground, in high contrast or in print.
- The four colours are deeper, each icon stands in a circle of its own colour, and the row that is now is marked in turquoise.
Follow your masjid’s iqāmah times
- A masjid can now share a link, or a code to scan, from the Masjid screen. It carries the masjid’s name and its iqāmah times. Open it, and Sabīl asks whether to follow that masjid; its times are then shown beside your prayer times. Nothing is kept on our server: the times travel in the link itself and stay on your device.
The Qur’ān and Ḥadīth come first, and the qibla joins the next prayer
- The Qur’ān and Ḥadīth now stand straight after Today: in the bar at the foot of a phone, and in the bar at the top of a wider screen. Adhkār and the Library have not gone anywhere. On a phone they are under More, and Today still offers the adhkār of the hour.
- The panel of the next prayer now shows the qibla: a compass rose with north at the top and the Kaʿbah’s mark at the bearing from your place, and a button that says the bearing and opens the compass. The rose does not turn: it is worked out from your place and asks nothing of the phone. Where your place was guessed from the time zone, the button names the city the bearing is from.
A note of your own on a verse
- From a verse’s menu in the Qur’ān you can now write a note for yourself. It stands under the verse, and all your notes are listed on the Qur’ān’s page. They are kept on this device only and are never sent to us.
A month’s prayer times in your calendar
- The monthly timetable has a new button, Add to calendar. It makes a file of the month’s five daily prayer times on your device, which your calendar app can open. Sabīl sends it nowhere. The times are as worked out on the day the file is made.
Your masjid’s iqāmah times beside the prayer times
- If you enter your masjid’s iqāmah times on the Masjid screen, Today and Salah now show each one beside the time its prayer begins, and on a Friday the time you entered for Jumuʿah. They are shown as you wrote them, and they stay on this device.
Masjids near you
- Under Salah there is now a list of the masjids nearest you, with how far each is and which way, and a link that opens a place in your maps app. The list is OpenStreetMap’s, the map made by volunteers: Sabīl has checked none of it, and it says nothing of prayer times.
- To show it, your phone asks Sabīl for the part of the map it is in, a square a few hundred kilometres across, and nothing finer. The distances are worked out on the phone.
Rulings in a draft translation keep their English
- In the 11 languages that read the library in a machine-made draft, a line that bears on a ruling is now always shown with the print’s English beneath it, whether or not you have switched the English on. A line whose draft failed one of our checks is shown in English only, and says so. The drafts are still drafts: no scholar or native editor has read them yet.
Prayer times for a second city
- On the Salah page you can now add one more city, from the app’s own list, and see today’s prayer times there beside your own: for a journey, or for family elsewhere. They are shown on that city’s clock, and when it is another day there, the page says which day the times are for.
- The monthly timetable can be shown and printed for that city too. The city is kept only on this phone and is not copied to an account. Your next prayer, the prayers you mark and the Hijri date stay with your own place.
Days the library names, on the Hijri calendar
- The Hijri calendar now marks the days that a title of the library names by its date, and lists them beneath the month in the title’s own words, each leading to its entry. It marks no other day, and the dates are calculated: the note on following a local sighting stands beside them.
Share a verse as a picture
- A verse of the Qur’ān can now be shared as a picture or as text: tap the share sign under a verse’s number in a sūrah, or “Share” on the verse’s own page.
- The picture is made on your phone. It carries the whole verse as Tanzil’s text has it, the meaning you are reading without its notes, the credit of each, and the address of the verse’s page. A verse too long for one picture is shared as text.
Verses you save
- A verse of the Qur’ān can now be saved from its sūrah or from its own page, beside the one place you keep for reading on. Your saved verses are listed on the Qur’ān page and on My Sabīl. If you are signed in, they are copied to your account with the rest of your reading.
Missed prayers, and those made up
- On the Salah page a prayer can now be marked as missed once its time has passed, and a missed one as made up later. The page and My Sabīl keep a count of them. It counts your own marks and does not say what you owe.
Downloads that stay, fasts from earlier years, a surer search
- What you download in Settings (the library, the Qur’ān) now stays on your phone when Sabīl is updated. Before, an update removed it.
- The Ramaḍān page lets you enter the fasts you missed in earlier years, before you kept a record here. It is your own count, and it does not say what you owe.
- Searching the Qur’ān with a word as it is spelled today finds more of the verses that the muṣḥaf spells in its own way.
A screen for the janāzah du‘ā
- The Adhkār page now leads to a screen for the du‘ā said over the deceased in the funeral prayer, as the library’s sheet of prayer adhkār gives it, with the way to the guide to that prayer.
A screen for Friday
- The Adhkār page now leads to a screen for Friday: what the library’s sheet of prayer adhkār gives for that day, said throughout the day.
- On Today, a card opens it on Friday, counted from Maghrib the evening before until Maghrib on Friday.
Makkah and Madinah, live
- The Masjid page now links to the live broadcasts from Makkah and Madinah, on the Saudi Broadcasting Authority’s own YouTube channels. A link opens YouTube, outside Sabīl: nothing of YouTube is loaded inside the app.
A page for each subject and each explained ḥadīth
- Each subject of the explained ḥadīths now opens on a page of its own, and so does each ḥadīth with its explanation: tap its title. Each has its own address, to share or to cite, and a search now leads straight to it.
A page for each verse of the Qur’ān
- Each of the 6236 verses now has a page of its own: open the list of verses beneath a sūrah and choose one. A verse’s page shows the Arabic with its meaning in every edition Sabīl has in your language, each under its publisher’s name, and has its own address to share or to cite.
A page for each book and each narration of ḥadīth
- Each of the 398 books of the seven ḥadīth collections now opens on a page of its own, and so does each of the 35982 narrations: tap a narration’s number. A narration’s page has its own address, to share or to cite, and a search now leads straight to it.
The qunūt, on the Witr screen
- The Witr screen now opens with the two qunūt du‘ās from the library’s sheet of prayer adhkār, and what is said after Witr follows them. Both are shown as the sheet has them; Sabīl does not say which to recite.
After the prayer, prayer by prayer
- What is said after the prayer now has a screen for each prayer: Fajr, Ẓuhr, ʿAṣr, Maghrib, ʿIshā’ and Witr. Each shows, in order, what the library’s sheet of prayer adhkār gives for that prayer, so there is nothing to skip.
- Each prayer keeps its own count for the day: what you counted after Fajr is not already counted after Ẓuhr.
- On Today, the card for after the prayer opens the screen of the prayer whose time it is.
A new icon
- Sabīl has a new icon: a doorway under a pointed arch, with the star in it.
- Where the browser allows it, the icon in its tab follows the appearance you have chosen: green with “Light”, blue with “Dark”, black with “Black”, and the colour of paper with “Sepia”.
Review on Today, and missed fasts carried over
Search the Qur’ān and the ḥadīth, and memorise
- Search now looks through the Qur’ān and the ḥadīth as well as the library: a verse by its words, in Arabic or in the meaning you read, or by its numbers; a narration by its words or by its number.
- In the Qur’ān reader, “Memorise” covers the verses so that you can recite and then check yourself, and keeps a list of the portions you want to come back to, with the day each is next due. The list stays on your phone.
- In the ḥadīth collections, 1155 narrations that are word for word ḥadīths of the encyclopaedia of explained ḥadīths now carry its translation where it has one in your language, with the way to its explanation.
- The two were paired by program, from the Arabic alone, and no person has checked the pairing; each book says so.
Answers: the first questions
- 20 questions people often ask, each answered by the entries of the Sabīl library that speak to it, word for word and with their sources.
- No machine wrote or shortened an answer. The library’s scholarly review is still pending, and each page says so.
- The questions are worded in English and Bengali; in other languages they are shown in English.
Icons, tiles, and Sabīl on your home screen
- Every section and every tool now has an icon of its own, the same one wherever it appears.
- Sections and tools stand as tiles, three across on a phone and four on a wider screen, so more of them fit on one screen.
- Sabīl tells you, once, that it can be added to a phone’s home screen or installed on a computer, and how. Close the notice and it does not come back; the same is always under Settings.
A new look
- The next prayer, the times of suḥūr and ifṭār, and the zakāt due each stand on a deep panel in the colour of their section, with a faint geometric pattern.
- The panel of the next prayer follows the hour: its colour changes at dawn, in the afternoon, at dusk and at night.
- Cards are rounder and softer, and the header and the tab bar stay in view as you read.
- A sūrah’s name stands in a frame, a library title opens under a medallion, and a small star marks the end of a text.
- With high contrast on, and on a printed page, the pattern and the colour are left out.
Explained ḥadīths, a short tafsīr, and tajwīd colours
- Explained ḥadīths: ḥadīths arranged by subject, each with its grade, a short explanation and the benefits drawn from it, in 13 languages.
- A short tafsīr, al-Mukhtaṣar, among the editions you can read under each verse of the Qur’ān, in 6 languages.
- Tajwīd colours in the Qur’ān reader, off until you turn them on. They are worked out by rule, not marked by hand.
- None of the three has been reviewed, and each says on its page where it comes from.
Make the page your own
- Choose the typeface of the Qur’ān from 3, and the typeface of du‘ā and ḥadīth from 4.
- Make the Arabic larger than the text around it, set the room between lines, and read the meaning in a book typeface.
- A black theme for the night, and a theme that follows the sun: light by day, dark from Maghrib until Fajr.
- All of it is in Settings, and behind the Aa button on the reading pages.
Sabīl opens
- Prayer times, the qibla and a prayer tracker; adhkār and du‘ās with a counter; and tools for zakāt, the Hijri calendar and a khatm.
- A library of 21 titles to read and to print, the Qur’ān in Arabic with its meaning in 13 languages, and 7 ḥadīth collections in Arabic.
- For Ramaḍān, the times of suḥūr and ifṭār and a tracker for the month. For the masjid, a timetable to print and a screen for a display.
- The app in 13 languages, with a larger text size, high contrast, and light, dark and sepia, all in Settings.
- It works without an account, and it keeps working without a connection.
- Common questions, a list of every page, and an accessibility statement.
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