What's new
in Joyful Muslims.
A running list of what's changed, what's better, and what's just arrived. Each entry below corresponds to an App Store release. The newest is at the top.
The Qur'an is still free, and always will be.
3.1 opens with a free account, leaves every room with a swipe, and puts the Lantern's three faces on your Home Screen. Reading in al-Adhkār and Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī became one clean panel, and every translated book now says whose words you are about to hear.
The Lantern on your Home Screen
The three faces were redrawn. The large one is the whole climb now — a rung for every station, with the lamp standing on it. The prayer face opens onto a real night sky, and the moon learned to read on cream.
A swipe takes you back
Every full-screen room can now be left with a swipe from the edge, the way the rest of your iPhone works. A recitation or a drill already running will ask you first.
The translation says what it is
Before a translated book begins, it tells you whose words you are about to hear and how they were made — once per book, at the head of it, and never over a recitation.
Al-Adhkār and Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
Reading is one clean panel. The ṣaḥīḥ is set like a page rather than assembled, and the chains of narration reach the ear.
Smaller things
A new install opens in Dark, and in Basic — three doors, with the Qur'an held in the centre. Free listening finishes your chapter before it stops. The Heart page, redrawn as an open book. Every widget opens the room it names. Lighter artwork, so pages arrive sooner.
Your free account
Joyful Muslims now opens with a free account — you can create one with Apple in a moment, and it costs nothing. It is what keeps your place, your progress and your lantern with you when you change phone.
About Joyful+
Joyful+ now also covers the Apple Watch app, the home-screen widgets, and prayer reminders. Prayer times, the qiblah and the whole Qur'an stay free on every plan. And if you already had a reminder switched on or a widget on your screen, it stays yours.
The app becomes a madrasa.
3.0 is the largest release we have ever shipped. The app stops being an audiobook player and becomes a place of study: the Qur'an arrives whole, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī opens with its commentary, and the Lantern is rebuilt as a school you enroll in. Read in the light. Listen in the dark.
The Qur'an
The complete muṣḥaf with the recitation of Shaykh Maḥmūd Khalīl al-Ḥuṣarī, translations and spoken meaning in four languages, tafsīr for the āyah you are on, and a ḥifẓ loop. Free for everyone — Qur'an listening never spends your monthly allowance.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
The first kitāb, readable in five languages, with a per-hadith excursion into Fatḥ al-Bārī in English and a narrator card for every chain.
The Lantern becomes a school
Enroll, meet your teacher, take your class. The day arrives as assigned portions; each opens into its own timed session with a Live Activity on the lock screen, and the bead seals only when the work is truly done. The ḥifẓ room drills what you keep in five classical stages.
Dual listening — ع + English
Each paragraph read in Arabic, then in your language — the listening twin of the Living Manuscript, live on nine books at launch and growing.
The Light edition
A second face for the whole app — cream, espresso ink, and quiet. A Joyful+ perk: read in the light, listen in the dark.
Prayer, everywhere you are
Qiblah and prayer times with live adhān, prayer widgets on the home screen, and the watch rebuilt as one day: prayer, a live qiblah dial, tasbīḥ on the crown, and the night question. CarPlay comes along for the drive.
Give it away
Gift a month of Joyful+ from inside the app, and BookKit Keys unlock complete study kits — one Key, one whole kit.
One open library, and the Lantern is lit.
2.0 rebuilt the foundations around a single conviction: no tiers of access to knowledge. Every book is open to every member; Joyful+ buys more time and deeper study, never books others can't reach.
One open library + Joyful+
Every book open to everyone from day one, with five hours of listening free each month. One membership — Joyful+ — removes the limit and opens the study layer.
Weekly drops
A new book every Friday and a masterclass every Monday — real, checkable, and still running.
The Lantern
The daily practice: today's deed, the classroom, the reflection. Kept days become the climb.
The Study tab
Masterclasses and structured study kits — vocabulary, overviews, and the scholar's thread through each book.
Widgets and the Watch
The day laid out as a road across nine widgets and the Apple Watch — daily verse, now playing, streaks, and the week's drop.
A quieter launch — the polish you feel before you can name it.
v1.5 is mostly the kind of work that doesn't announce itself: things that used to interrupt you don't anymore. Sign-in holds between launches. The Library opens straight to your books. A cinematic splash sets the tone before each session. Small mercies, in service of the listening.
Sign in once, stay signed in
Refresh-token flow + cached profile means your account survives launches and updates. No more unexpected sign-outs mid-week.
Library opens to your books
The Books tab now lands on your active library instead of the Next Release rail — faster to your current chapter.
A cinematic splash
A redesigned opening sequence before each session — calmer onboarding, a softer transition into reading.
Apple Watch + widgets
Apple Watch app for the prayer room and the gym, Daily Verse on your home screen, and a Now Playing widget so you remember where you left off.
Per-book sharing with previews
Share any book to X / iMessage / Threads with a proper preview card and a one-tap install for recipients without the app.
In-app notification bell
A pulsing teal dot for new arrivals, red for ones you genuinely shouldn't miss — including each new book as it joins the library for everyone.
The library opens.
The first public release. The Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn of Imām al-Ghazālī, Stories of the Prophets, the Sealed Nectar — narrated chapter by chapter, free for the Ummah. The AI Scholar trained on the classical canon. One open library — every book, every reader, from day one.
The classical library
Translated from the original Arabic, narrated, released free — volume by volume. The Iḥyāʾ first.
AI Scholar
Trained on the classical canon only. Won't guess, won't invent ḥadīth. Shows you which scholar said what, and where.
One open library
Every book is open to every reader from day one — no locked shelves, no tiers of access to knowledge. New titles simply join the library for the whole Ummah at once.
Streaks + journey
A gentle daily nudge to keep walking. Wisdom Score that climbs as you complete chapters.