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Alhamdulillah – we had a busy year. 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 truly be possible without you.

Let’s begin with the goal of this site:

The intent behind myislam.org is to create one of the largest and most useful Islamic website for Muslims and non-muslims alike. Our approach is to research, explore and develop high-quality, engaging content (design, structure, tone, research, authenticity) and to create online applications (games, tools, resources, etc.).

I want to share and summarize the four major projects we completed since last Ramadan, and then we’ll make our annual stats review compared to the previous period.

(#1) 99 Names of Allah:

1. Published the entire series for free on our site for all to read. Over 110,000+ words long 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 three times a week. We collected 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. Now 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 karaoke 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 + pronunciation.

(#3) Qur’an PDFs

1. 114 PDFs Beautifully designed, ornamental frame and made completely free.
2. Includes Arabic, Transliteration, as well as Sahih International Translation.
3. Made interactive, click on any ayah in the PDF, and it will transport you to the tafsir page on our website for that verse.
4. Distributed to over 29,601 people who have downloaded the PDFs 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 over 10-20 educational books to make learning important Islamic content and life principles fun for kids and teenagers.

• Download and sign your artwork to save on your device
• Can expand the text to read the full description
• Listen to the audio 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 whole library of books everywhere you go…But with an interactive element that can be far better for learning.

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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. Developed “who wants to be a scholar” game with 146 questions testing your knowledge of the ninety names of Allah.
7. Recorded over 700+ du’as from the hadith books and need to create the supporting articles.
8. Few other smaller secret projects which, Insha-Allah, will be released this Ramadan.

Why support My Islam?

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

We realized and reported last year: 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 religion.

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.

1. Human sounding A.I generated voice-over to create audio for tafsir

Tafsir of ayah 1:1:
One of the many practices taught by Islam is that its followers should begin their activities in the name of God. This principle, if consciously and earnestly followed, will necessarily yield three beneficial results. First, one will be able to restrain oneself from many misdeed, since the habit of pronouncing the name of God is bound to make one wonder when about to commit some offence how such an act can be reconciled with the saying of God’s holy name. Second, if a man pronounces the name of God before starting good and legitimate tasks, this act will ensue that both his starting point and his mental orientation are sound. Third – and this is the most important benefit – when a man begins something by pronouncing God’s name, he will enjoy God’s support and succour; God will bless his efforts and protect him from the machinations and temptation of Satan. For whenever man turns to God, God turns to him as well.

2. Quranic Videos

This was a time-intensive project but we’re close to finishing now.

3. Free Quran Note-taking Software

We’re working with a very talented developer from Pakistan who’s helping us create a free Qur’an note-taking software / journal. The ability to not only favorite your verses but to add your own private commentary. You can also categorize and organize your notes by topic. See the demo below.

4. Android and IOS app of My Islam

We want to take our existing technology and make an Android and IOS app making the Qur’an and Islamic content more accessible.

5. NEW Educational GUIDES:

A person can only see the truth through the pursuit of knowledge. Emotions and passions take us away from the truth. Only through reasoning and intellect can we be freed. We constantly reinvest the funds into creating new Islamic content. Some guides we want to create:
1. Prophet Stories
2. A new Muslims Guide to Islam
3. Hajj and Umrah Guide
4. Biography of Prophet Muhammad
5. Ramadan Guide

Insha-Allah one of the staples we hope the My Islam site will be known for, is for the biography of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. We’re eager to put a ridiculous amount of effort into producing a completely web-based seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. There are many great seerahs already out but they are expensive to purchase. Since we’re crowd-funded by our readers, we get to play by different set of rules. We can research and release a free version on our site making this kind of information more accessible to a larger audience. I don’t know of a single Islamic website that has created something of the magnitude we wish to create. Probably because a project like this takes a long time, is difficult to pull off, and is largely unprofitable. For committing to just the price of a coffee $2.00/month (or more) you can help make this a reality for our team.

5. Categorize the Qur’an by topics (Qur’an verses on love, life, marriage etc)

6. Online community forum

We’re thinking about experimenting with a community forum where users can create, share and debate publicly every ayat of the Qur’an. We would integrate this with our existing platform and allow for open discourse and self-policing. But the worry is if it becomes a cesspool with misinformation, unproductive conversation, or place for spam from those who want to attack Islam. We’re willing to create this space as an experiment with best intentions and then watch it carefully to see how it plays out.

7. Salah Tracker

An online tool to help you in your salah and develop better habits. With this, you can generate reports, filter and find out what salah you consistently miss (if any). You’ll also get the encouragement of developing a streak and the ability to download reports. Here’s a demo.

8. Interactive Educational Games:

There’s wordle which captured the attention of millions across the globe. What fun and interactive Islamic games exist to teach us something beneficial? We have two in mind, general-purpose quiz testing on basic or fundamental questions about our faith. Wrong answers will show appropriate guides on our site to provide further reading. And the second game would be a beat the clock guessing game with the 99 names of Allah سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ to help with memorization.