Qalb (قلب) means heart. The idea of having an app that knows what you feel and guides you has been in my mind. I was never too into Islam. Life was fu*ked. At least that’s how I looked at it. Now I won’t go into my past, but the summary is: I was not in a good state, both mentally and physically.

One day something switched. I decided, hey, let me write my thoughts into a book. I had journaled one or two times before, but I never committed to it. But now, for some reason, I was. A few weeks went by. I started to pray because I read my journals and figured how pathetic that state was. Not gonna lie, I felt a bit helpless. However, praying and relying on Allah (الله) somehow lessened the burden. Do not get me wrong, the problems I faced were still there, but I now managed to survive them somehow. I am grateful to have such a wonderful mother. Though she did not know my thoughts, somehow she always figured out what was in my mind. She always told me to stick to my prayers, even on those days that I did not feel like it or those days where I felt, how can I pray to Allah (الله)? As essentially, when praying—Salah (صلاة)—you are in front of Allah (الله), and sometimes I felt so disgusted with myself that I thought, “How shameful I am to stand in front of Allah (الله), where I disobey Him but still stand in front of Him asking for help.” This thought remained with me for some time. Hopelessly, I also started reading the Quran (القرآن) to get some hope.

The real aha moment came when I had just journaled and, right after it, read the Quran (القرآن). Even though I was reading the Quran (القرآن), the journal was still being processed in the background in my mind. Right there, I saw the very verse that was about the same thought process I was going through. I was like WHAT!!! Is this some kind of a miracle? Looking back now, maybe it was.

The point being: the verse came at the right time when I was seeking guidance.

I believe that I cannot gatekeep this. I need to tell someone about it, make someone go through the same aha moment as I did. I tried telling some of my close friends about it, but they either did not seem interested or felt that journaling was too boring or cumbersome. But I really want to share this experience with someone. Now how do I do it? I believe that I am good at programming (let me cope). So I made this app, where I tried to maximize the same experience—everything at the same place.

How it works?

Well, you go to the main page, write a journal, or how you feel or felt today. The model (my own, not ChatGPT) figures out the emotions in your words (bear with me, it still lacks and needs improvement) and gives you back some verses that might be relevant.

I have left some randomness to the related verses, to let the universe determine the verses you see. Well, there is no such thing as “random” in CS, but hey, I tried to keep a high entropy.

Anyways, enough of my yapping. This app is here—maybe will be in the future too, Inshallah (إن شاء الله)—so that someone desperate for help might come and find some kind of guidance.

جزاك اللهُ خيرًا