Search

Search finds text and references across the whole library at once — the Qur'an and its translations, tafsir, transliterations, every hadith collection you have downloaded, and your own Collections. It runs on your device, so it works without an internet connection, and it is ready to use the moment you open it: every filter starts selected, so you can simply type.

Opening Search

Tap Search in the bottom navigation bar. Two tabs are available, and you can swipe between them:

The ⋮ menu in the top corner offers three more tools:

Two Ways to Search

Search matches your query in two ways. Both are on by default, and at least one always stays on — the app does not let you switch off both.

Text matching

Finds words and phrases in the text itself:

For example:

Searching by sound is useful when you remember how a verse is recited but not what it means or where it is.

Reference matching

Finds numbered references — surahs and verses, juz, rukus, hadith chapters and positions in a book:

Natural forms are understood too, such as Surah 2, Verse 255, Ayah 255 from Surah 2 or 2-255 with a dash instead of a colon.

Switching between them

Text matching and reference matching keep their own settings. Switch from one to the other and back, and each returns exactly as you left it — sources, scopes and filters included.

Sources and Filters

All filters start selected, so a search covers everything by default. Open the filters to narrow it.

Sources

Search covers what you have downloaded. Turning off a source hides the filters that belong to it, so the filter panel only ever shows choices that apply.

Scopes (text matching)

• Surah — limit Qur'an, tafsir and transliteration results to particular surahs.
• Parah/Juz — limit them to particular juz.
• Hadith Books — limit hadith results to particular collections.

Choosing a scope opens a list with every item already selected; untick the ones you do not want.

Language or resource (text matching)

Narrow text results in one of two ways:

• Language — search only in the languages you choose.
• Resource Pack — search only within particular translations, tafsir works, transliteration packs or hadith renderings.

Reference filters (reference matching)

Choose the source — Qur'an or Hadith — and the kinds of reference a number should be read as:

Each kind you choose is another way of reading the same number. With Surahs and Parahs/Juz both chosen, 20 finds Surah 20 and Juz 20; with only one chosen, it finds only that one. For hadith, choose which collections to look in.

Reset Filters returns every filter to its default.

Writing a Query

Capital letters do not matter: Mercy and mercy find the same results.

Arabic vowel marks and letter forms

Arabic can be typed with or without its marks. Vowel marks, the Qur'anic pause marks and the stretching line (tatweel) do not need to match, so احمد and أَحْمَد find the same results.

Letters that are written in more than one form are treated as the same letter:

One word, two spellings

A great deal of the library is Arabic typeset with Urdu letterforms. The same word is written one way in a book typeset for an Arab press and another way in a book typeset for a South Asian one — الله and اللہ are the same word, and the difference is the shape of a single letter.

Search treats them as one word. Type either spelling and both come back, across every collection, in Arabic and in Urdu alike. You do not need to know which spelling a book uses, or which keyboard it was typeset on.

Letters that are distinct sounds in Urdu — such as ٹ, ڈ, ڑ, ں, ے and ھ — are kept distinct, so a search in Urdu stays precise.

One result per verse

The Qur'an can be read in several scripts. They are the same words, spelled according to different traditions, so the Arabic is searched in one spelling. Each verse is returned once rather than once for every script you have, and it opens in whichever script you read.

Words and roots

Search finds text as it is written. To find every word the Qur'an builds from one root — all the forms of ر ح م, for instance, including those that share few visible letters with what you typed — use Word Roots.

Results

Each result shows:

• Its reference — the verse, the narration and its collection, or the saved item
• Its source — Qur'an, tafsir, transliteration, hadith or Collections
• The resource and language it comes from
• A preview, with the words you searched for highlighted, so you can see why it was found

Results arrive a page at a time as you scroll, so a search across the whole library can be browsed from its first result to its last.

Drawn in their own script

A language and a writing system are not the same thing — see How Resources Are Labelled. Each result is set in the script it is actually written in, with the same typography it has on the page it comes from, so a preview looks like the text you will find when you open it:

Other narrations of the same report

The same report is often recorded in several collections, each compiler giving it in his own words. A search can match Bukhari's wording and not Muslim's, because the two are worded differently.

When a hadith result has other narrations of the same report, they are placed directly beneath it, marked SAME REPORT and labelled with the result they belong to — for example, Also narrates Sahih al-Bukhari 52. Their previews show the opening of the narration rather than highlighted words, since they are found through the match above them rather than through your words. This is the same information as Also narrated in on the hadith's own page, brought into your search.

Opening a result

Tap a result to open it in place:

Searching Your Collections

With Collections selected as a source, Search looks through the titles of the items you have saved and the notes you have written on them, alongside the library. Collections also has its own search inside the Collections screen, which looks through folder names and descriptions as well — see Collections.

Keeping Search Up to Date

Whenever you download a translation, a tafsir, a transliteration pack or a hadith collection, it becomes searchable as part of the download. Nothing needs to be done.

After an app update that improves how text is searched, the app prepares search again across everything you have downloaded. It happens once, on the first launch after the update, in the background while you use the app, with its progress shown in Search. It takes from a few seconds to a couple of minutes depending on how much you have downloaded, needs no internet connection, and leaves everything you have saved untouched.

Reindex data, in the ⋮ menu, does the same at any time:

1. Open the ⋮ menu in Search
2. Choose Reindex data
3. A progress bar shows how far it has come
4. When it completes, everything you have downloaded is searchable

Searches in History

What you search for is added to your History, alongside the verses and narrations you read.

• An entry is written once you stop typing — after a short pause, and only for a query long enough to be a real search — so History holds what you were looking for rather than every partial word on the way to it.
• Search entries have their own filter chip in History and count towards its totals.
• They are kept as a record of what you looked for; the search itself is run from Search.
• Any of them can be removed from History, without affecting Search.

Old Search

Old Search browses references step by step, for when you know where something is rather than what it says:

1. Choose the source — Hadith or Qur'an
2. Choose the kind of reference — hadith chapters, surahs, paras and so on
3. Move through the levels the screen offers
4. Choose the language, where more than one is available
5. Open the result, in its full context

Old Search is for references; to search text, use New Search.

Tips

• Start broad, then narrow — search every source first, then add filters.
• Use quotes for phrases and names.
• Combine operators — +prayer -fajr.
• Combine a word with a scope — search mercy with the scope set to Surah 2.
• Search by sound — with a transliteration pack downloaded, type a verse as you would say it.
• Use Go to verse and Go to hadith from the menu when you already know the reference.

Common Questions

Related

• Quran — Go to Verse, Word Roots, scripts and transliteration
• Hadith Library — Go to Hadith, and Also narrated in
• Collections — your saved items
• History — your searches and reading
• Downloads — what is on your device, and so what Search covers