Sebak

Our rule

Every word from a named source

The Quran is not ours to rewrite. So Sebak follows one rule, without exception: every verse and every translation of its meanings is quoted, letter for letter, from a published source, and that source is written under the line.

Our approach

How we keep that promise

Quoted, never written

We never summarise, simplify, paraphrase or interpret the Quran. Where a source says nothing, Sebak says nothing. Even the check questions only hide one word of a quoted line.

No AI in the text

No AI writes, translates or explains a single word. The speech model on your phone only listens and compares your recitation with the text. It never produces any.

A person reviews every source

No text and no voice enters Sebak until a person has reviewed it. A recitation is chosen for correct tilawa, judged by ear and checked against the text word by word.

Checked before every release

Before each version ships, every line in the App is compared with the original source files. If a single letter differs, that version does not ship.

The source under every line

You always see where a line comes from: the source, the translator and the version. The full list, with every licence, is in Settings › Sources and licences.

Corrected to the source

If you find a mistake, tell us. We check it against the source and correct Sebak. We never correct the source.

Sources and licences

Where every word comes from

  • Arabic textTanzil Quran Text (Uthmani, version 1.1), Tanzil Project, tanzil.net. CC BY 3.0. Taken without changing a single letter.
  • Translations of the meaningsQuranEnc.com, one named translation for each of 55 languages, each quoted exactly as published with its translator and version. In English: Rowwad Translation Center.
  • Surah namesTanzil Project metadata.
  • RecitationSheikh Mahmoud Khalil Al-Husary, murattal. Recordings from quranicaudio.com, word timings from Quran.com. Every verse was checked against the text.
  • Listening teacherTilawi FastConformer, a Quran recitation model by Muhammed Durakovic. CC BY 4.0. It runs on your phone and only compares.
  • FontsAmiri Quran, Fraunces and Inter, under the SIL Open Font License.

Our way

Prepared with care

Sebak is prepared in the way of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah, and its sources were chosen with that care. One wrong letter in the Quran would break the trust a student places in a teacher. That is why we would rather show less than show something we cannot source.

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