The reference texts and recitation recordings used in Light’s Qur’an study portal, with credit to their translators, reciters and publishers. Translation text, recorded recitation and AI narration are credited separately below.
When verified Arabic lookup is enabled, Light displays verses from the Tanzil Quran Text (Simple/Imla'ei or Uthmani, version 1.1), Copyright © 2007-2026 Tanzil Project, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. The text is reproduced verbatim, without changes. Check tanzil.net/updates for corrections to the text.
Arabic verses are recited by Mishary Rashid Alafasy, using his recorded Hafs recitation provided by EveryAyah.com.
Light plays the original verse recordings from the Alafasy 128 kbps collection. Introductions and tafsir use Light’s advisor voices. Translation audio depends on the selected edition.
If EveryAyah is unavailable, Light tries an identical recording hosted by HuddleSpeak. If both recordings are unavailable, an AI advisor voice reads the same verified Arabic text. AI playback is labelled in the passage and is not a recording of Mishary Rashid Alafasy.
Light offers three English translations. Their text sources and narration credits are listed below.
Saheeh International — human narration by Ibrahim Walk. The published English text is supplied by Tanzil.net (source update April 24, 2011) and is reproduced unchanged. The human verse recordings are provided by EveryAyah. The recording and text snapshot can have minor wording differences; Light does not rewrite the published text to match the audio.
For this edition, Light plays four Arabic ayahs followed by their four English translations, then the next group. If a translation recording is unavailable, an AI advisor reads the same selected published text. Translation recordings are streamed from the provider and have no HuddleSpeak audio backup.
The Tanzil translation terms permit noncommercial use. Commercial permission for this text and the Ibrahim Walk recordings has not been established.
Talal Itani — Modern English (Allah edition). Translation by Talal Itani, ClearQuran.com. The text is reproduced unchanged under CC BY-ND 4.0. The publisher’s current download terms expressly permit commercial use.
Marmaduke Pickthall — Traditional English. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930), public domain.
A translation conveys meaning; the Arabic is the Qur'an itself. Commentary is separate from the quoted translation.
Muhammad Junagarhi. Light uses the published Urdu translation supplied by QuranEnc.com — Urdu Translation, Muhammad Junagarhi. The translation text is reproduced unchanged. The publisher’s page includes the translation and its explanatory footnotes.
Fateh Muhammad Jalandhari - narration by Shamshad Ali Khan. The published text is supplied by Tanzil.net (source update December 24, 2010) and is reproduced unchanged. Human verse recordings are supplied by EveryAyah. Spoken wording can differ slightly from the published text.
Jalandhari uses recorded narration, with an AI advisor reading the same published text if a clip is unavailable. Translation recordings are streamed from the provider without a HuddleSpeak audio backup. Junagarhi uses an AI advisor voice. Arabic recitation uses the Alafasy recordings credited above.
The panel’s explanations and tafsir are separate from the quoted Urdu translation. If the published Urdu text cannot be retrieved, Light reports the retrieval problem rather than substituting an AI-generated translation.
For passages under discussion, Light retrieves English commentary excerpts from Quran.com. Amina explains them in your selected language using her AI advisor voice. The response's tafsir source links show the specific statement and source excerpt checked for support. Merely retrieving a commentary does not qualify it for display. If the check is unavailable or finds no support, no citation is shown. The explanation is not a recording or a verbatim reading of the author.
Ibn Kathir (Abridged)
Ma’arif al-Qur’an — Mufti Muhammad Shafi
Tazkirul Quran — Wahiduddin Khan
Further reading: Tafsir al-Jalalayn — English PDF, Altafsir. This PDF is linked for reading; its text is not automatically retrieved for answers.
These commentaries express their authors’ readings, not every tradition or a universal consensus. Retrieved excerpts may be shortened. If a lookup fails, Light must distinguish general explanation from sourced commentary.
When a question is about practice, a ruling or the Prophet’s example, Light searches a local index of Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawud, Jami` at-Tirmidhi, Sunan an-Nasa’i, Sunan Ibn Majah and the Muwatta of Imam Malik. A report is cited only from that index, by its collection and number, and the response’s hadith source links show the specific statement and the words of the report checked for support. As with tafsir, retrieving a report does not qualify it for display; if the check is unavailable or finds no support, no citation is shown. If no report is found, the panel says so instead of quoting one from memory.
The hadith text, numbering and grades come from the hadith-api dataset compiled by Fawaz Ahmed and released under The Unlicense, reproduced unchanged. Arabic text is the classical text of each collection. The English translation of Sahih al-Bukhari is by Muhammad Muhsin Khan and of Sahih Muslim by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui; the dataset does not name the translators of the other English and Urdu editions. Permission from the original translators and publishers for commercial use has not been established.
Each source link opens the same report on Sunnah.com. Sahih Muslim is cited by its standard (Abdul Baqi) number. Report numbers of the Muwatta differ between editions, so its link opens the book on Sunnah.com rather than a numbered report.
Grades are always attributed to the scholar who gave them, as recorded in the dataset (for example al-Albani, Zubair Ali Zai, Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut or Ahmad Shakir); Light never grades a report itself. Reports from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim carry no separate grade. A report’s wording is evidence; the rulings scholars derive from it are interpretation, and the schools can read the same report differently.
The positions of the schools of law are cited from their own texts, described in the next section.
When a question is about practice, Light can show what five schools of law hold: the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali schools and the Ja’fari school. The spoken answer starts from the Qur’an and the hadith, then says in one sentence whether the schools agree or differ; a Schools of law card under the answer shows each school’s position beside the passage of its own text that states it. As with tafsir and hadith, a position is shown only when the quoted words of the passage support it; if the check is unavailable or finds no support, nothing is shown. If no passage is found, the panel says so instead of describing a school from memory. Positions are the schools’ interpretation of the texts, not the Qur’an or the hadith themselves, and Light never chooses between them. For a personal ruling, ask a qualified scholar.
You choose which schools Light describes under Schools of law in the account menu. All five are shown at first. A school you switch off is not searched for the panel, shown or spoken of; while one is off, the panel names the schools it is showing instead of speaking of consensus, and may say that other schools differ without describing them. Switching all five off turns the schools off; the Qur’an and hadith continue. The choice is saved with your account, so it applies on the website and in the Light app.
Each school is described by its own scholars’ texts, in Arabic, explained by the panel in your language:
0676IbnHasanMuhaqqiqHilli.SharaicIslam.Shia000057Vols-ara1 and
0460ShaykhTusi.Khilaf.Shia000026Vols-ara1 (Nigst, Romanov, Savant, Seydi, Verkinderen,
OpenITI),
licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0;
Light uses them non-commercially. Light keeps al-Tusi’s statement of the Imami position and his evidence, not
his account of the other schools, which are described by their own texts. These are the school’s classical
texts; its followers act on the ruling of their own marja‘.Each source link opens the same page of the same edition: al-Jaziri and Ibn Rushd on al-Maktaba al-Shamila, Shara’i al-Islam and Kitab al-Khilaf on Madrasa Fiqahat’s library, and each report of al-Kafi, al-Faqih and Tahdhib al-Ahkam on Thaqalayn.
Quran text, translations, tafsir excerpts, hadith reports and the passages of the schools of law come from referenced sources. AI-generated explanations may contain errors and should be checked against those sources.