11 free Muslim apps in M’sia to meet your Ramadan goals, from puasa tracking to paying zakat

It’s almost that time of the year where all your favourite Ramadan bazaars are grilling and cooking up feasts upon feasts. Not to mention the many local boutiques like Bayu Somerset that will display new Raya collections.

Those aside, Ramadan is a time of self-reflection and atonement. While some might argue that technology can be a distraction, the truth is that it can also greatly help you with becoming a better Muslim.

To that end, we’ve found 11 Muslim apps that can ease your spiritual journey this Ramadan 2024. 

They’re categorised based on the main features they have, such as keeping track of your prayer times, improving your Quran reading, assisting in paying zakat, and tracking your daily fasts. All of these apps have free versions, but some do

To keep track of prayer times

1. Athan

Image Credit: Athan

Athan is an app by Islamic Finder, a non-profit website providing information about mosques, Islamic organisations, Islamic centres, and Muslim owned businesses. 

On the main page, it features a countdown towards the next prayer time along with a prayer goal tracker. You can also choose to turn on the notifications for prayer times.

Download this if you’re:

New to praying five times a day and need more incentives to commit. Athan has a system where you can earn a coin for each prayer performed. A woman. Its Athan Pink feature tracks the days of your menses, so you’ll accurately know how many days to replace after Ramadan.

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store / Huawei AppGallery

Languages: English, Malay, Indonesian, Arabic, French, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu

2. iman

Image Credit: iman

Priding itself on being an app the “gets the job done”, iman delivers prayer times based on the official timetables of the user’s country. For Malaysia, it’s based on the timetable published by JAKIM (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia).

There are also pre-salah notifications to prepare you for the upcoming prayer. For Ramadan, its suhoor and imsak notifications will be extra helpful in planning when to have breakfast.

Download this if you:

Prefer an uncluttered and straightforward app for prayers. This app is designed to only show information related to prayer times based on your current location.

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store

Languages: Malay, Indonesian

3. Qalby

Image Credit: Qalby

Founded by local celebrity Mizz Nina, Qalby is a Malaysian app that provides Islamic essentials at your fingertips. 

Besides prayer times, it also features specific du’a for morning and evening supplications, hajj and umrah, and other specific cases. For example, you can look for prayers for Ramadan, for travelling, for protection during the night, and after you’ve had a bad dream.

Download this if you:

Like to plan ahead to keep up with prayers. The app allows you to check the prayer times for not just today, but also future dates.

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store

Languages: English, Malay, Indonesian

To recite or memorise the Quran better

1. Tilawah Malaysia

Image Credit: Tilawah Malaysia

Tilawah Malaysia is an app that provides a colour-coded system to help read the Quran with the right pronunciation, or more accurately called tajwid in Malay. Each colour represents a different way of pronouncing the word. 

This helps in recognising which letters need to be read in a thick or thin accent, and prolonged or muted. To enhance the user experience, you can actually tap on each word or phrase to hear the audio.

Download this if you:

Are a visual and auditory learner. The colour-coded system to differentiate the tajwid makes it easier to read at a glance.

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store / Huawei AppGallery

Languages: English, Malay, Indonesian

2. TheNoor

Image Credit: TheNoor (left) / Vulcan Post (right)

Co-founded by local celebrity Neelofa, TheNoor is a Malaysian-made app that was launched in 2021. It has an AI-powered tool called the Hifz SmartChecker for Quran recitations.  

In other words, it can check if your reading is right or wrong in real time. In my experience, though, I wouldn’t recommend solely relying on this. There is still room for error if the app wrongly detects the verse you’re reading.

Download this if you:

Want a detailed analysis of your pronunciations. This feature rates your accuracy level, but do note that it is for more advanced readers looking to polish your recitations.

Available on: Google Play Store, Apple App Store, Huawei AppGallery

Languages: English, Malay, Indonesian, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Tamil

3. Tarteel

Image Credit: Tarteel

Marketing itself as “Your AI-powered Quran companion”, Tarteel is an app that assists users in advancing their Quran memorisation.

The app helps to detect when you’ve pronounced a verse wrongly, or if you’ve missed some words.

Download this if you:

Want an app that focuses only on testing your Quran memorisation abilities. Are preparing for a hafazan competition, where participants are challenged to recite the Quran from memory.

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store

Languages: English, Malay, Indonesian, Arabic, French, Russian

To keep track of your fasting

1. Muslim Pro

Image Credit: Muslim Pro

Empowering Muslims worldwide, Muslim Pro labels itself as a comprehensive Islamic lifestyle app. Founded in Singapore in 2010, the app includes a fasting tracker to take note of which dates you’ve observed your fast.

This feature can be particularly useful for those who are less experienced in fasting or struggle with remembering their fasting schedule.  

Download this if you’re:

New to fasting. The app lets you schedule a reminder to notify you to fast each day.

Available on: Google Play Store, Apple App Store

Languages: English

2. FastTrekker

Tailor-made for Muslims, FastTrekker is a Ramadan fasting app that helps you stay on top of your puasa obligations. 

With the app, you can create a personalised schedule for your fasting day and easily keep track of your progress throughout Ramadan. For convenience, you can set notifications for suhoor and iftar in the app too.

Download this if you:

Are competitive. FastTrekker has a scorecard that states how many days you’ve completed fasting and how many more days are left. Want to practise sunnah fasting (also called puasa sunat in Malay) outside of the Ramadan month.

Available on: Google Play Store, Apple App Store

Languages: English

3. SAUM

Image Credit: SAUM

A simpler tracker, SAUM is another app designed to assist those who might miss out on their obligatory fasts due to personal reasons, whether that be illness, menses, or others.

How it works is you have to input the number of fasts you have to replace. Whenever you’ve replaced a fast, you just tap on “Alhamdulillah! I fasted today” and the number on the main page will decrease. There’s an activity tab on the bottom to keep track of the specific dates you’ve missed and replaced.

Download this if you:

Like countdowns to feel motivated. The app’s main page tells you how many days you’ve missed, which incentivises some to replace their fasts faster.

Available on: Apple App Store

Languages: English

To pay your zakat on time

Dictionary time: Zakat is an Islamic finance term referring to the obligation that an individual has to donate a certain proportion of wealth each year to charitable causes.

Source: Investopedia

1. TheNoor

Image Credit: TheNoor

Appearing for the second time in this article, TheNoor also helps users to pay their zakat dues seamlessly through the app.

This is a convenient choice for people wanting to skip the queue or who simply can’t find the time to visit their preferred zakat collector. Once done, you’ll receive a receipt as proof of payment.

Download this if you:

Prefer the convenience of auto debit systems. TheNoor’s zakat tool allows you to set up auto zakat payment.

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store / Huawei AppGallery

Languages: English, Malay, Indonesian, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Tamil

2. Tulus

Image Credit: Tulus

A locally developed Muslim app, Tulus is one of the few focusing mostly on zakat payments and donations, such as waqaf, infaq, and sedekah. 

Aside from those, Tulus also offers the option to pay for aqiqah and korban. For context, aqiqah is the tradition of sacrificing an animal on the occasion of a child’s birth, whereas korban is what’s performed during Hari Raya Haji. 

Download this if you:

Like having all your Islamic payment and charity services in one app. Tulus offers only these payment services and doesn’t have the usual prayer times or Quran.

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store

Languages: Malay

3. IKHLAS

Image Credit: IKHLAS

Developed by airasia, IKHLAS is another Shariah-compliant app that aims to support Muslim communities. This includes religious obligations like umrah, korban, fidyah, and zakat. 

For context, fidyah refers to the fine imposed towards a person for delaying the replacements of fastings for previous Ramadans. Typically, this is paid by people who are seriously ill and are physically unable to fast.

Download this if you’re:

A regular airasia customer. IKHLAS offers 1 airasia point for every RM4 spent. The more points you earn, the higher the chances of you winning a free umrah trip. 

Available on: Google Play Store / Apple App Store

Languages: English, Malay, Simplified Chinese, Thai, Arabic, Turkish, German, Urdu, Spanish, and 12 other languages

A handy table for you:

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Regardless of which app you choose, we hope you’ll find that it benefits you during the upcoming month of Ramadan.

According to JAKIM’s report, Ramadan will fall on March 12 whereas Hari Raya Aidilfitri is tentatively set to April 10.

That’s less than a month left to go, so we hope all our Muslim friends and readers are taking care of themselves before the Holy Month.

Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.

Featured Image Credit: Alena Darmel via Pexel / Vulcan Post