How Hubuk works
Every feature explained: what it is, why it is useful, how to use it, and what it changes elsewhere in the app.
Short films
One task each, in the real app, most of them under a minute.
Getting started
Reading, display, and finding your way around.
Start here
Hubuk is a place to build your own study of the Quran. You record what you notice as you read, connect the verses that belong together, and it all compiles into a body of knowledge you can search, map and come back to.
Why it matters
Notes in margins and notebooks scatter. Here every note is tied to its verse, every tag carries a meaning, and every link runs both ways — so what you noticed last month is still there, and still connected, when you need it.
How to use it
- 1Record: in the workspace, open a verse's icons and add a tag, a reflection or a question. Give a tag a meaning once and it means the same thing everywhere.
- 2Connect: open the link icon on a verse in the workspace and link it to another verse, with a line on why. Word links do the same for a single word, and in Compare you can drag one verse onto another.
- 3Compile: the Explorer gathers everything under a theme, root or source; the Atlas shows your notes across the whole Quran; Search finds anything you wrote.
- 4Let the Quran show you where to look: tap a word for its root and every verse that uses it, and open Similar in a verse's details for verses that share its wording.
What it changes
Nothing you write is shared. All of it can be downloaded, or deleted with your account, from Account.
The workspace
Your main reading surface. Pick a surah on the left and its verses load on the right, each with the translation layers you have chosen.
Why it matters
It is the one place where reading and annotating happen together — you never have to leave the text to record what you noticed.
How to use it
- 1Choose a surah from the list on the left, or type to filter all 114. Each entry says how many verses it has and whether it was revealed in Makkah or Madinah.
- 2Use the find bar under the surah name — or press / — to reach a verse or search inside the surah you are reading. A number goes to that verse, "2:255" goes to that verse in another surah, a surah name opens it, and anything else searches this surah's text and your own notes on it.
- 3Read the verse in the translations and commentaries you have switched on in display settings.
- 4Use the small icon row beside a verse number to tag it, reflect on it, question it, or link it.
- 5The number badge on each icon tells you how much you have already recorded on that verse.
What it changes
Everything you add here immediately becomes searchable, appears in the Explorer and on the Atlas, and feeds the Tools graphs and the statistics on your Account page.
Shortcuts
Display settings
The gear icon in the top bar controls which translations and commentaries are shown, how large each one is, which Arabic, Urdu and English fonts are used, and which language the microphone listens for.
Why it matters
You can read Arabic-only for memorisation, or stack Arabic with Urdu and tafseer for study, without changing anything else about how you work.
How to use it
- 1Click the gear icon at the right of the top navigation bar.
- 2Choose Translations or Commentary at the top, then switch individual sources on or off — they are grouped by language.
- 3Use the − and + buttons beside each source to change its size independently.
- 4Pick an Arabic, Urdu and English font — each button previews the font itself.
- 5Set Voice Language to the language you will actually speak into the microphone.
What it changes
These settings are global. They change every verse in the workspace, search results, favourites and comparisons — and they also decide what gets copied to your clipboard and what goes into a downloaded verse.
Watch out for
- — If a translation seems to have disappeared from a page, check whether it is switched off here — it is the most common cause.
- — A commentary can be long, so it shows collapsed with the range of verses it covers; open it to read.
- — Voice input uses the language selected here. Speaking Urdu while this is set to English produces nonsense.
The verse toolbar
The row of small icons beside every verse number. Each one opens a different panel for that specific verse, and carries a badge showing how many items you already have.
Why it matters
Every action you can take on a verse is one click away, and the badges show at a glance which verses you have already worked on.
How to use it
- 1Words & Roots icon — word-by-word breakdown with roots, meanings and word-level links.
- 2Tag, Reflection, Question and Link icons — add or edit that kind of annotation.
- 3Copy — copies the verse using your current display settings.
- 4Heart — save to Favourites.
- 5The last two icons open the full verse details, one as a dialog and one as a side panel. Its tabs hold the text, the words, the grammar of each word, Similar — verses that resemble this one and wording it repeats elsewhere — and your notes.
- 6Similar is worked out from the text and is the same for every reader. Verses you connected yourself are under Notes, as Linked Verses.
- 7To find verses the AI thinks are connected, use Discover Connections under AI.
Watch out for
- — The link badge counts links pointing at this verse as well as links you created from it, so a verse can show links you did not make.
- — Copy only includes the layers currently switched on in display settings.
Favourites
A simple saved list of the verses — and passages — you have hearted.
Why it matters
A shortlist for verses you keep returning to, without needing to remember where they were.
How to use it
- 1Click the heart icon on any verse to save it. A passage can be favourited from the Explorer, where tagged passages are listed.
- 2Open Favourites in the top navigation to see the full list.
- 3Click the heart again — anywhere — to remove it.
Your account
Your study at a glance — a year of activity and what you have written — and the settings for your login: your name, your data, signing out, and deleting your account.
Why it matters
One place for your own progress and for the things that affect your login rather than your research.
How to use it
- 1Open Account from the top navigation.
- 2Your study leads the page; see its own topic for the activity calendar.
- 3Edit your name and save.
- 4The Danger Zone permanently deletes your account. A Google account confirms without a password, since it has none.
Watch out for
- — Your email address cannot be changed here: it is the identity you sign in with.
- — Deleting your account deletes everything in it — every tag, reflection, question, link, favourite and chat, and everything else you have saved. It cannot be undone, so download your data first if you want to keep it.
Signing in
Hubuk accounts sign in with Google.
Why it matters
There is no password of ours to remember or reset, and your notes are tied to the Google account you already use.
How to use it
- 1Choose Continue with Google on the sign-in page, and pick the account you want your notes kept under.
- 2Use the same Google account on the web and in the Android app to see the same notes in both.
Watch out for
- — Signing in with a different Google account opens a different, empty Hubuk account — it is not a second way into the same one.
- — A few demonstration accounts use a password instead. Those are set up by an administrator, who can also set a new password.
Your data, and what is measured
Everything you write in Hubuk belongs to you: you can download all of it at any time, and what the app measures about its own use is deliberately limited to shapes rather than content.
Why it matters
A tool you keep years of personal reflection in should be one you can walk away from with your work intact, and one whose measurement you can read in full rather than take on trust.
How to use it
- 1Open Account and choose Download my data.
- 2You get a zip of JSON files — everything you have written, from tags and their other names, reflections, questions, links and word links to favourites, passages, chats and saved AI results — plus a README explaining each file.
- 3A single verse can also be downloaded with your notes on it, from the Download button in its details.
What it changes
Your password and sign-in tokens are never in the export. Deleting your account removes everything the export contains from the server.
Watch out for
- — What is measured: which page you opened, which feature you used, which surah an annotation was on, how many results a search returned, and how fast the API responded.
- — What is never measured: the text of your reflections, questions, tags or chats; the verse text; your name or email. There is no mouse tracking, no keystroke logging and no session replay.
- — One deliberate exception: if a search returns no results, the words you searched for are recorded. A query that matched nothing has by definition matched none of your own writing, and it is the clearest signal of what the app cannot yet find.
Your study
The top of your Account page: a calendar of the last year with a square for each day, darker the more you added, and a dashboard of your research — Quran coverage, counts by type, most-annotated surahs, top tags and top sources.
Why it matters
Shows both progress and blind spots — the surahs you have never touched are as informative as the ones you have covered, and the calendar shows the rhythm of your study rather than a streak to keep.
How to use it
- 1Open Account; Your study leads the page.
- 2Hover a square, or tab to it, to see the date and what you added that day.
- 3Click a square to list everything from that day; each item opens where it lives.
Watch out for
- — Days are counted in your own timezone, so a note written after midnight belongs to the day you wrote it.
- — The calendar shows what still exists. Delete a note and it leaves the day it was written.
- — Active days, not a streak: a week away is not a failure, so nothing counts down.
Reporting a problem or an idea
One form for anything you want the people who build Hubuk to know: something broken, an idea, a mistake in a verse, its words or a translation, or anything else. My reports lists what you have sent, what is happening with each, and any reply.
Why it matters
A report with a screenshot and the page it happened on can be reproduced and fixed; a text error tied to its verse can be checked against the source. Ideas decide what gets built next.
How to use it
- 1Open the ? menu in the top bar and choose Report a problem or idea — or use the flag on a verse's details to report an error in that verse, which fills in the verse for you.
- 2Pick what it is about and describe it. For a text or translation error, name the translation if it is one.
- 3Add up to three screenshots and one short video: choose files, drop them on the form, or paste a screenshot straight in.
- 4Open Details sent with it to see exactly what else goes with the report, and remove any line you would rather not send.
- 5Tick the agreement and send. Follow it under My reports, where you can also withdraw it.
Watch out for
- — Photos have their location and camera data removed on your device before they are uploaded. Videos are sent as they are, so prefer a screen recording to a phone video.
- — Images can be up to 5 MB, videos up to 25 MB and 60 seconds. Attachments are kept for a year.
- — Withdrawing a report deletes it and its attachments; so does deleting your account.
Study guides
Step-by-step ways to use Hubuk for a real piece of study, from start to finish.
Study a theme in an evening
Gather what the Quran says on one theme — patience, trust, mercy — and keep what you notice, so the theme is there, whole, the next time you come back to it.
Why it matters
Read verse by verse, a theme is scattered across the whole Quran. Filed under one tag with a meaning, with your reflections and the links between its verses, an evening's reading becomes something you can open again in a second.
How to use it
- 1Find the verses. In Advanced Search, add a Root condition (for patience, ṣ-b-r) or a Text condition, and read the results in order.
- 2Name the theme once. Tag the first verse — say “Sabr” — then give the tag a meaning in Managing your tags. Every verse you tag after that shares it.
- 3Tag each verse that belongs. Where a run of verses makes one point, tag it as a passage with Apply through verse.
- 4Write as you go: a reflection where something strikes you, a question where something does not add up yet.
- 5Connect what belongs together. Open the link icon on a verse in the workspace, pick the verse it belongs with and write a line on why — or drag one verse onto another in Compare.
- 6See it whole. Open the Explorer and pick your tag: every verse, reflection, question and link under it. On the Atlas, Find with Tags shows where the theme falls across the Quran.
What it changes
The theme is now searchable, mapped and linked. Once your tags start landing on the same verses, the Thematic Cluster Map begins to draw them together.
Prepare a lesson from your notes
Turn a theme you have been building into the outline for a class, a study circle or a khutbah.
Why it matters
The hard part of preparing a lesson is remembering what you already found. When the verses, your reflections and the links between them are filed under a tag, most of the outline is there before you start.
How to use it
- 1Open the Explorer and pick the theme's tag. Read down what you have gathered, and pick the four or five verses that carry the point.
- 2Put parallel passages side by side in Compare — up to four surahs — to show how a point is made in more than one place. Drag a verse onto another to record the connection.
- 3Read each verse with a commentary layer switched on in the reading settings, and add a reflection with what you want to say about it. Name where it came from in Source, with a link.
- 4Check nothing is missed with Search: one query covers your own notes as well as the text.
- 5To take a verse into your notes or slides, open its details and choose Download: the verse comes with your notes on it.
Keep notes from lessons and books
Record what a teacher, a lecture or a book said about each verse, so it is kept with the verse rather than in a notebook.
Why it matters
Notes from a lesson are only useful if you can find them from the verse later. With a source on every note, you can also see everything one teacher or book said, in one place.
How to use it
- 1When the lesson reaches a verse, go to it in the workspace — type its reference, such as 2:255, in the find box.
- 2Add a reflection with the point that was made, or a question for what to look up later. Voice input lets you dictate in English, Urdu or Arabic.
- 3Fill in Source with the lesson or book — the same name each time, so the notes group together — and add a Source link to the recording or page.
- 4Later, open the Explorer's Sources tab and pick that source: every note from the lesson, verse by verse.
- 5Search finds any of it again from a word you remember.
Build a reflection habit
Read a little each day and keep one thought from each sitting.
Why it matters
Small, regular reflection adds up to a record of how your understanding grew — and seeing the days add up is a quiet reason to come back.
How to use it
- 1Open the workspace. It remembers where you stopped, so you carry on from the next verse.
- 2Read a few verses with the translations you prefer. When one stops you, add a reflection — a line or two is enough — or a question to carry with you.
- 3If a word catches your attention, open Words & Roots to see its root and where else it appears.
- 4On Account, Your study shows the days you were active — active days, not a streak — and how much of the Quran you have annotated.
- 5After a few weeks, open the Explorer or the Thematic Cluster Map to see the themes you keep returning to.
Trace a word through the Quran
Follow one word, through its root, everywhere it appears — and record what you find.
Why it matters
Arabic roots are how the Quran's vocabulary connects. Seeing every place a root appears often shows a meaning no single verse makes plain.
How to use it
- 1In the workspace, open Words & Roots on a verse and tap a word's root to see its meaning and every verse that uses it.
- 2To see where it falls across the whole Quran, follow the root on the Atlas, or add it to the Occurrence Chart.
- 3Tag the verses that matter with a tag for the word or idea, and give the tag a meaning.
- 4Where two uses belong together, link the verses — or link the words themselves with a word link.
- 5Advanced Search can then combine the root with a phrase, or with one of your tags, within the same verse.
Annotating
Turning what you notice into something you can find again.
Tags, reflections, questions and links
Four kinds of note you can attach to any verse. Tags label a theme, reflections record what you understood, questions record what you have not resolved yet, and links join two verses together.
Why it matters
This is what turns reading into a body of work. Every note is searchable, groupable and visualisable later — instead of scattering across notebooks and margins.
How to use it
- 1Open the matching icon on the verse toolbar and click Add.
- 2Write the note. For tags, either pick an existing tag or type a new one — the box accepts both.
- 3Optionally record where it came from in the Source field, which also autocompletes from sources you have used before.
- 4If the source lives on the web — a lecture on YouTube, a blog post, a web page — paste its address into Source link. A bare address like youtube.com/watch?v=… is fine; https is added for you.
- 5Save.
What it changes
New tags and sources immediately become available in every autocomplete, filterable in the Explorer, searchable, and counted in the Tools graphs and your statistics. A source link shows as the site it goes to beside the source, wherever the note appears and in every export.
Watch out for
- — Source is free text — it can be a book, a lecture, a scholar, or a note to yourself. Keeping it consistent is what makes it useful for filtering later.
- — Notes are private: only you can see them. There is no public switch on a note.
- — Only web addresses are accepted as a source link. Editing a note keeps its link unless you change or clear it.
- — Reflections are called tadabbur in some search results and API responses — they are the same thing.
Words and roots
A word-by-word breakdown of a verse — transliteration and a meaning for each word, plus the Arabic root it comes from and how often that root occurs in the Quran.
Why it matters
Roots are how the Quran's vocabulary actually connects. Seeing them makes patterns visible that translations flatten out.
How to use it
- 1Click the Words & Roots icon on any verse.
- 2Read across the words; each shows its root and that root's total occurrences.
- 3The meaning is in Urdu when you have an Urdu source switched on, and in English otherwise.
- 4The Grammar tab of the full verse details explains each word's grammatical role.
- 5Use the Explorer's Roots category, or the Explore Root AI tool, to see every place a root appears.
Word links
A link anchored to a single word in a verse rather than to the whole verse.
Why it matters
For connections that are really about one word — a shared root, a specific term, a recurring phrase — a verse-level link is too blunt.
How to use it
- 1Open the Words & Roots icon on a verse.
- 2Scroll to the Word Links panel below the word breakdown.
- 3Add a link from a specific word to another verse.
Watch out for
- — Word links are separate from verse links. The Cross-Reference tool has its own toggle for each, so check it if a link seems missing.
Compare
Up to four surahs side by side in their own scrollable panels — and the fastest way to create links between verses.
Why it matters
Parallels and contrasts are far easier to see when the two passages are next to each other, and you can record the connection the moment you notice it.
How to use it
- 1Add up to four panels and pick a surah in each.
- 2Scroll each panel independently to the passages you want to compare.
- 3Drag a verse from one panel and drop it onto a verse in a different panel.
- 4The link dialog opens pre-filled with both verses — add a description and save.
What it changes
Links made here show up on both verses' toolbars, in search, and as edges in the Cross-Reference Explorer graph.
Watch out for
- — Dropping a verse inside its own panel does nothing — links must cross panels.
Managing your tags
A tag is a thing in its own right, not just a word repeated on each verse. It has one name, one meaning, and can have other names that point at it.
Why it matters
Renaming used to be impossible: the word was stored separately on every verse, reflection, question and link, so fixing a typo meant redoing all of them. Now you rename once and everything follows. Two tags that turned out to mean the same thing can be merged into one.
How to use it
- 1Open the Explorer's Tags tab. Each tag shows how many times it is used — on verses, reflections, questions, links and word links together.
- 2Use the gear beside a tag to rename it, say what it means, or merge it into another.
- 3Add an 'also known as' so a second spelling reaches the same tag instead of creating a new one.
- 4Archive a tag to hide it and everything tagged with it, without losing the reasons you wrote.
- 5A tag nothing uses any more is kept and marked unused, ready to be used again. Filter to unused tags to archive them all at once, or delete one from its gear.
Watch out for
- — Capitalisation no longer matters. Typing 'mercy' where 'Mercy' exists attaches to the existing tag.
- — A tag has two kinds of description. The one on the tag says what it means, everywhere. The one you write when tagging a verse says why it is on that verse, and is different every time.
- — Merging keeps the old name as an alias, so typing it still finds the merged tag.
- — Archiving is reversible. Deleting is not, which is why only a tag nothing uses can be deleted — a tag still in use is archived or merged instead, so nothing written with it is lost.
- — Removing the last note that uses a tag does not delete the tag: its name, meaning and other names are your own vocabulary.
Tagging a range of verses
A passage is a run of verses inside one surah treated as one thing — 2:1-5 rather than five separate verses.
Why it matters
Some things are true of a passage rather than of any single verse in it. Tagging the range gives you one card and one reason to write, instead of five that have to be kept in step by hand.
How to use it
- 1Tag a range from any verse: in the tag form, fill in Apply through verse with the last verse of the run.
- 2The tag then applies to every verse in that range, so each one shows it.
- 3In the Explorer's Tags tab, a passage's row lets you resize it, favourite it or delete it. Resize and the tag follows: verses that drop out of the range stop carrying it.
Watch out for
- — A passage stays inside one surah. A run crossing a surah boundary is not a single unit.
- — Two tags on the same range share one passage, so resizing it moves both.
- — Deleting a passage removes the tags that were on it — they would have nothing left to point at.
Exploring
Searching and browsing everything you have built.
Similar verses and repeated wording
Two lists under Similar in a verse's details. Similar Verses are verses that share a run of wording with this one, ranked by how much they share. Repeated Wording lists exact phrases from this verse that occur elsewhere, with how many verses and surahs each reaches.
Why it matters
The Quran often says a thing more than once, in the same words or nearly. These lists show you where, so you can read the parallels together — and keep the connection with one click.
How to use it
- 1Open a verse's details — the eye or the side-panel icon on a verse in the workspace — and choose the Similar tab.
- 2Open a similar verse to see the shared words marked. The bar shows how much of the verse you are reading the match accounts for.
- 3Open a repeated phrase to see every verse it appears in, each with the phrase marked where it sits.
- 4Press Link beside any of them to link it to the verse you are reading, with a line on why.
What it changes
A link made here is an ordinary link: it shows in both verses' Links, in the Cross-Reference Explorer and on the Atlas.
Watch out for
- — Both lists are worked out from the Arabic text and are the same for every reader. The verses you linked yourself are under Links, not here.
Search
Full-text search across the Quran and across everything you have written — tags, reflections, questions and links.
Why it matters
Your own notes are searchable alongside the text itself, so a half-remembered thought from months ago is one query away.
How to use it
- 1Type a query and press Enter.
- 2Use the type filter to narrow to Ayahs, Tags, Reflections, Questions or Links.
- 3Leave it on All to see results grouped by category with counts.
- 4Click any result to open the full verse.
Watch out for
- — Your query is marked wherever it appears in the results, in your own notes as well as the verse.
- — Marking ignores Arabic diacritics, so typing a bare root finds it inside fully vocalised text.
- — Changing the type filter re-runs the search straight away.
- — All shows grouped, collapsible categories; the single-type filters show one flat list, so the layout changes shape between them.
- — The small chips on a result show which field matched your query.
Explorer
A browser for your knowledge base along three axes: Tags, Roots and Sources. Pick something on the left, see everything it touches on the right.
Why it matters
Search answers a question you already have. The Explorer shows you what you have accumulated — including themes you did not realise you had been building.
How to use it
- 1Choose a category tab.
- 2Filter the list on the left, then select an entry.
- 3For a tag, the right-hand side groups everything carrying it — verse tags, reflections, questions, links and word links — as sections you can open one at a time. The number beside the tag is the total of those sections, so it always matches what you can see.
- 4Every verse carrying it appears on the right, with the matching word marked in the text.
- 5For Roots, use the Arabic alphabet bar to jump to roots by first letter.
- 6For Sources, you get what you wrote from that source — the tags, reflections, questions and links themselves — above each verse they were written about. Turn Exact match off to include names that merely contain the one you picked, so “Ibn Kathir” also matches “Ibn Kathir, vol. 2”.
Watch out for
- — Typing in the filter box clears any letter you selected in the Roots alphabet bar.
- — Root matching ignores diacritics, so the bare root marks its inflected forms inside fully vocalised text.
- — “Unused” means used nowhere at all, because that is what Archive all unused acts on.
Copying and exporting
A verse can leave the app with your notes on it, and the Occurrence Chart can leave as a picture or an interactive page.
Why it matters
Your research can go into a lesson, a document, a slide, or a backup without being retyped.
How to use it
- 1Use the Copy icon on the verse toolbar for a quick clipboard copy.
- 2Open a verse's details and use Download for the verse with everything you have written on it — as text, Markdown, JSON, a readable HTML page or PDF.
- 3The Occurrence Chart exports as a PNG or as interactive HTML.
- 4For everything at once, use Download my data on your Account page.
Watch out for
- — Exports follow your display settings — a translation that is switched off will not be in the file.
- — PDF opens your browser's print dialog; choose Save as PDF there.
- — Source links travel with every download, as a link in Markdown and HTML.
Atlas
The whole Quran drawn as one strip you can zoom into, with everything you have added marked on it, and a Find panel that lights up where words, your notes, tags, roots and sources appear.
Why it matters
You always see where you are in the Quran. From one screen you can go from a verse to its links, its roots and every other place a theme appears — and step back along the way you came.
How to use it
- 1Click the strip to go to a surah — or, once zoomed in far enough to tell verses apart, to open the verse. Scroll over it to zoom and drag to pan; the corner buttons frame the current surah, frame what is lit up, or show the whole Quran again.
- 2Press Z with the pointer over the strip (or double-click it) to magnify that stretch to about sixty verses; press Z or Esc to go back.
- 3Rest the pointer on the strip for a moment to read the verse under it, or on an arc for two seconds to read both of its verses and its note. Press Space to keep that preview open.
- 4The map button at the start of the strip's toolbar holds what the Atlas is, this help, and the keyboard shortcuts.
- 5Hover a verse square, a search result, a root's surah or a link to read the verse without opening it; click to open it. On a touchscreen, press and hold instead of hovering.
- 6In a verse, hover Tags, Reflections, Questions or Links to preview what is there, and click one to pin its full panel open.
- 7Type in Find to jump to a reference like 2:255 or a surah by name, or to light up words, your notes, a tag or a source. Pick Roots to follow one through the Quran.
- 8While something is lit up, press N and Shift+N — or use the Match buttons — to read the matches in order.
- 9Use back and forward to retrace your steps. The address bar always holds a link to where you are, so a place can be bookmarked or shared.
- 10Choose what the strip shows from Layers: your tags, reflections and questions; favourites; links; Makkan and Madinan surahs; and the juz grid.
- 11Press Revelation order to lay the surahs out in the order they were revealed; press it again for the printed order.
Shortcuts
Watch out for
- — A verse square has a corner per kind: tag top-left, reflection top-right, question bottom-left, favourite bottom-right. The blue dot is a link, a dashed outline is the root you are following, and an underline is a Find match.
- — With a verse open, its links out arc above the strip and its links in arc below it; every other link fades back.
- — Marks for individual verses appear on the strip once you have zoomed in far enough to tell verses apart.
- — Revelation order changes where surahs sit on the strip, not what is in them.
- — Words searches the verse text and its translations, not tafsir — a verse is not lit up because its commentary mentions the word.
- — While a search or root is lit up, the strip answers only to its verses: the pointer snaps to the nearest one and a click opens it. Clear the search or root (Esc) to use the whole strip again.
- — Only one question leads at a time — whichever you asked last. Follow a root while a search is lit (or the other way round) and the older one is paused: still drawn faintly, shown as a dashed chip under the strip, and brought back with one click. Back undoes a question as well as a step.
- — With a tag, notes or source search leading, the bright corners of a verse square — and the ringed buttons on an open verse — are the annotations that matched; the rest are dimmed.
- — Links touching what is lit up stay highlighted while the rest fade. Open one and the rest of them are listed underneath to step through.
AI
The assistant, and the AI research tools.
Chat
A conversational assistant that answers questions about the Quran and about your own annotations, citing the verses it uses.
Why it matters
It is the quickest way in when you do not yet know which verse you are looking for — and because it cites references, you can check every claim against the text.
How to use it
- 1Click New Chat and ask your question. The conversation is saved when you send the first message — an unused new chat leaves nothing behind.
- 2Watch the reply stream in; verse references appear as cards you can expand inline.
- 3Listen to a reply with its speaker button, and rate it with the thumbs so answers can be improved.
- 4Rename a conversation with the pencil beside its title in the list.
- 5Archive conversations you have finished with rather than deleting them.
Shortcuts
Watch out for
- — Verse citations in a reply are collapsed — click one to read the verse without leaving the conversation.
- — Deleting a conversation is permanent; archiving is not.
- — If a reply fails, your question stays in the conversation with a Retry button — asking again does not repeat it.
Voice input
A microphone button that dictates into any text box — chat messages, reflections and questions.
Why it matters
Reflections in Urdu or Arabic are far faster to speak than to type, especially on a phone.
How to use it
- 1Set your language in display settings first.
- 2Click the microphone and speak.
- 3Text is inserted at your cursor, so you can dictate into the middle of what you have already written.
- 4Click again to stop.
Watch out for
- — This uses your browser's speech recognition — it works in Chrome and Edge, and is unavailable in Safari and Firefox.
- — Recognition language comes from display settings, not from what you are speaking.
AI research tools
Six focused AI tools: a daily reflection on a verse, suggested tags, questions worth asking, discovery of thematically connected verses, a study plan generator, and a root explorer.
Why it matters
They break a blank page — giving you a starting angle on a verse, a vocabulary for tagging, questions you had not thought to ask, or a structured plan for a topic you want to work through.
How to use it
- 1Open AI and expand any of the quick tools.
- 2Pick a verse and generate.
- 3Open “Add your own angle” first if you already know how you want the verse read — that you are treating it as law rather than consolation, say, or tracing one thread through a surah. It is optional, and leaving it shut changes nothing.
- 4Accept a suggestion to open the real annotation form with it filled in, then edit before saving. A suggested tag brings its reason with it, into the note on that tagging.
- 5Suggestions you add are marked Added; ones that do not fit, Dismiss. Undo puts either back. The marks are kept with the result, so reopening it from history — on any device — shows what you already did, and history says how many you added.
- 6Use Study Plan for a multi-day plan on a topic, and Explore Root for the semantic range of an Arabic root.
- 7Rate a result with the thumbs; it is how the tools get better.
What it changes
Accepted suggestions become real annotations, edited by you rather than taken as offered. Every generation is saved to your history on the server, so you can reopen it later from any device — along with the angle you asked for.
Watch out for
- — “Build on what I have written” sends your reasons, reflections and open questions into a study plan, so it can pick up where your own thinking stopped instead of repeating what you have covered.
- — The angle shapes emphasis. It will not make the answer stray from the verse, and it is not a way to have a claim asserted for you.
- — AI output is a starting point for your own study, not a ruling. Verify against the text and reliable scholarship.
- — Undo on an added suggestion only forgets the mark. The note it made is yours and stays where it is.
AI limits
Chat and the AI tools each have a daily allowance, so the service stays affordable to keep open to everyone.
Why it matters
Knowing what is left lets you save a study plan for the question that needs it, rather than finding out halfway through.
How to use it
- 1Each AI tool shows how many uses you have left today beside its button — for example, 2 of 3 reflections.
- 2Chat has a daily and a monthly allowance measured by how much is read and written, not by message count. A long answer that looks up many verses uses more than a short one.
- 3Allowances reset at 00:00 UTC each day, and the monthly chat allowance on the 1st.
What it changes
The tools and chat are counted separately: using up your tag suggestions does not affect chat, and a long conversation does not use up your reflections.
Watch out for
- — If a chat answer reaches the limit partway through, it stops and says so rather than going over.
- — A request that fails does not count against a tool's daily uses.
- — AI features need a verified email address.
Research tools
Graphs, charts, statistics, and comparisons.
Research tools
Analysis and visualisation tools built on the Quranic text and on the annotations you have made.
Why it matters
They answer questions no amount of reading will: where a root clusters, which verses are hubs in your own thinking, and how two surahs share their vocabulary.
How to use it
- 1Open Tools and pick one — each page explains what it needs.
- 2Most tools need some annotations of your own before they show anything useful.
- 3The Occurrence Chart can be exported as an image or as interactive HTML.
Watch out for
- — Your statistics moved to your Account page, under Your study.
Advanced Search
A query builder for verses. Each condition matches text in the Arabic or a translation, a root, a tag, or words in your own notes, and conditions combine with AND, OR and AND NOT inside the same verse. Filters then narrow by Makki or Madani, surah, juz and what you have annotated.
Why it matters
It answers questions ordinary search cannot phrase — 'Makki verses containing this root but not that word, which I have already tagged'.
How to use it
- 1Add a row per condition and choose what it matches: Text, Root, Tag, or My notes — your reflections, questions, link notes and tagging reasons.
- 2Set each later row's connector — AND, OR, or AND NOT — then press Search, or Enter in a text box.
- 3Pick Any, Makki or Madani under Filters. More filters holds surahs, juz and My annotations; while it is closed it lists what is switched on inside.
- 4Under Translation & tafsir layers, choose which layers a Text condition searches and which the results show — translations first, then tafsīr, each grouped by language.
- 5Sort from the bar above the results — canonical order, most conditions matched, or recently annotated. Changing it re-runs the search.
Watch out for
- — All conditions are matched within the same verse, not across the whole Quran.
- — Only Text conditions read the layers. Root, Tag and My notes conditions work whichever layers are chosen.
- — The layers searched follow your display settings until you change them here.
- — Leaving Show in results empty shows all layers.
Occurrence Chart
Plots up to five roots, search terms, tags or sources across the whole Quran as a surah grid or a linear timeline.
Why it matters
Shows where a theme actually concentrates — often revealing that a subject belongs to one revelation period rather than being spread evenly.
How to use it
- 1Add up to five items, mixing types freely.
- 2Switch between the surah grid and the linear timeline.
- 3Export as an image, or as an interactive HTML file you can share.
Word Frequency Analyzer
Root frequency across the whole Quran or within a chosen surah, with a compare mode for two surahs.
Why it matters
Frequency is a fast read on what a surah is preoccupied with, and comparing two surahs exposes their difference in emphasis.
How to use it
- 1Choose the whole Quran or a specific surah.
- 2Set how many top roots to show.
- 3Turn on Compare Mode to place two surahs side by side.
Thematic Cluster Map
Clusters your own tags by how often they appear on the same verses.
Why it matters
Surfaces the structure hidden in your tagging — which themes you consistently treat together, and which stand alone.
How to use it
- 1Raise the Min Co-occurrence slider to keep only the stronger relationships.
- 2Click a tag to see what it connects to and the verses they share.
Watch out for
- — This tool only uses your own tags, so it needs a body of tagging before it shows anything.
Cross-Reference Explorer
Every verse-to-verse link you have made, drawn as one interactive network.
Why it matters
Shows the shape of your thinking as a whole, and the leaderboard identifies the verses you keep returning to.
How to use it
- 1Filter by surah or tag, or jump to a reference like 2:255.
- 2Toggle verse links and word links independently.
- 3Check Most Connected Verses for your hubs.
Watch out for
- — Empty until you create links — the fastest way to make them is dragging between panels in Compare.
Comparative Surah Analysis
Two or three surahs compared structurally — length, unique roots, root occurrences, your tags and your links — plus the roots and tags they share.
Why it matters
Puts numbers behind an intuition that two surahs are related, and shows exactly which vocabulary they hold in common.
How to use it
- 1Select two or three surahs.
- 2Read the structural table, then the shared roots and shared tags below it.
Watch out for
- — Shared roots means roots present in every selected surah, so adding a third surah narrows the list.