Alhamdulillah – we had a busy 2022. Let me tell you all about it.

First and foremost, to all the readers and supporters of MyIslam.org, we want to express our sincerest gratitude as we welcome another blessed Ramadan. None of this would be possible without your support.

Let’s begin with the goal of this site:

The intent behind myislam.org is to create one of the most useful Islamic website for Muslims and non-muslims alike. Our approach to this is to research and write high-quality content and to create online applications (Qur’an reader online, games, tools, resources, etc.).

We want to share and summarize the six major projects we’ve completed since last Ramadan, and then we’ll look at the impact our site has had with some website statistics.

(#1) 99 Names of Allah:

1. Published the 99 names of Allah (سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ) for free on our site for all to read. A 110,000+ word long guide elucidating the beautiful names of Allah (swt) and read by over 30,000 people every month!
2. Along with this series, we had a real-time email course that spanned eight months and went out to over 70,000 people every week. We received over 900+ reviews and comments for feedback and averaged 4.57/5.00 stars.
3. Developed 99 names of Allah guessing game, played over 40,000 times, and was shared over 867 times.(#2) Qur’an v3.0:

Listen and Understand the Qur’an.

1. Includes both Arabic and English Audio-playback with the ability to playback as Arabic only, English only, or you could listen to both.
2. Word-by-word karoke style highlighting.
3. 8 different relaxing thematic backgrounds (4 videos & 4 wall-papers).
4. Ambient background sounds (fan, water, nature, fire).
5. 280% faster than v2.0.
6. Select the word to reveal it’s English meaning + audio for pronunciation.

(#3) Qur’an PDFs

1. 114 Beautifully designed PDFs, ornamental frame, and also free.
2. Includes Arabic, Transliteration, and Sahih International Translation.
3. Made primarily for offline use, can be used in kindle or other PDF readers.
4. Made interactive, click on any ayah in the PDF, and it will transport you to the tafsir page on our website for that verse.
5. Distributed over 29,601+ copies to people in the last year alone.
(#4) Islamic Coloring Book Application

We developed an online coloring book application and released the first book for children and adults. It includes a complete audiobook on the ninety names of Allah to follow along. This one is exciting because the core technology is developed, and we can now publish an entire series of educational books to make learning important Islamic content and life principles fun and engaging.

• Download and sign your artwork to save on your device
• Can expand the text to read the full description
• Listen to the audiobook version
• Drawing Tool
• Paint Bucket Tool
• Textured Patterns
• Erase
• Undo/Redo button (keyboard shortcuts on desktop)
• Set custom colors

Insha-Allah, with time, we’ll have a whole library of educational content for you to use on a single device. This would be like carrying a library of books but available everywhere you go… with an interactive element that can be far better for learning. The savings we’ll be passing on to users is quite large. A single book + audiobook can cost upwards of $20.00. If we can publish 20 books independently and make them available for free, that’s $400.00 in educational content for every person.

(#5) Qibla Augmented Reality

We offer three experiences to help you find the exact location of the Kaaba. The first is the coolest of the three with AR (augmented reality). We teleport you directly from your home to being in Masjid Al-Haram where you can look around to find exactly where the Kaaba would be.

(#6) Who wants to be a scholar – 99 Names of Allah

A fun and exciting game to test your knowledge. With over 146 unique questions that get harder the further you go, you’ll slowly advance to becoming a true scholar. With each wrong answer you’ll have an opportunity to learn something new. As we write more guides, we’ll create more quizzes to test a person’s knowledge on that subject.

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Year in review – statistics:

It’s fun to look at the stats, but it’s hard to evaluate the impact the right message could have for a single person delivered at the right time. What would that be worth? What would the butterfly effect be for their community, family, and neighborhood? I am not sure, and it’s impossible to measure. So, although one of the site’s goals is to continue to grow and reach a larger audience – it’s not all about the views.

Updated Results For This Year:

Previous Year:

Smaller Projects:

This covers the main projects we’ve completed, but we have made many other small improvements to the site that add up. For example:

1. Deep interlinking in the tafseer of Abul Maududi, any verse referenced in this book links directly to that ayah, so you can easily navigate and explore the links between verses.
2. Upgraded website server to the cloud for faster performance.
3. Custom-built sharing button on individual ayah pages, two-click share across all major social platforms with your preferred translation (e.g., Sahih vs. Yusuf Ali)
4. Qur’an Images and Gallery.
5. Added more entries with explanations to our online Islamic terms dictionary.
6. Recorded over 700+ du’as from the hadith books and need to create the supporting articles.
7. We are working on many more things behind the scenes and are excited to announce those with you. Insha-Allah, some of these projects will be available this Ramadan – so stay tuned!

Our journey to get to where we are today.

As a small, self-funded team, we’ve learned how to do a lot with little.

We started just over 4 years ago, and by the will of Allah (سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ) our site is ranked among one of the most visited faith and belief sites in the entire world. We’ve poured a lot of effort into producing written educational content covering topics people are looking for answers to and interested in learning about. We’ve also created a suite of educational tools to help practicing Muslims.

This graph shows our entire website traffic since inception.

For the first year, no one knew we existed. We wrote many articles and developed the first version of our online Quran.

We had a few loyal readers who gave us encouraging feedback (thanks, mom), and we just kept working with faith. We like to call the initial phase of our existence the power of sabr.

Since then, we have been working diligently and consistently showed month-over-month improvement. We also developed an online Tasbih Dhikr app, Islamic Terms Dictionary, a Qibla direction finder, and various educational games. We’re always exploring and researching new opportunities and have projects being worked on and tested. You can see changes in our online Qur’an.

We’ve also expanded the team with full-time, part-time, and freelance workers from all across the globe. This includes people from Pakistan, Canada, Tunisia, Sri-Lanka, and India. We hope to continue to serve the community and add to the breadth of amazing content online.

AN IMPORTANT INSIGHT

Last year, we discussed how if you want to control the narrative and show people the beauty of Islam, you have to own the spaces where they go to learn.

Social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter create an echo chamber; their algorithms push things they believe would keep users on their platforms. This usually results in confirmation bias – people seeing what they want to see and channels they’ve already subscribed to.

The space where people go to learn and explore a topic is Google. This is an important arena where showing up first matters as you’re given the opportunity to make a lasting impression. Getting the authentic answer can guide someone who’s lost and save their faith, providing them hope and solace through Islam.

The graph below shows we currently have 24,794 spots in the top 3 positions in Google. Last year, we reported 19,351 in the top 3, representing a 28% increase. Two years ago, we only occupied 3231, a 667% increase.