The Spotlight
From Makkah to the world
Umm Al-Qura University’s e Muqra’ah is bringing Qur’an recitation learning online
By Dr Abdullah bin Musa Al-Kathiri Dean, College of Da’wah and Usul Al-Din, Umm Al-Qura University
"Umm Al-Qura University has opened a classroom you do not walk into. "
"The service is offered free of charge, positioning it as a public service to the wider Islamic world rather than a product."
From Makkah, where the Qur’an is not simply read, but lived, Umm Al-Qura University has quietly done something modern without disturbing what is timeless. It has opened a classroom you do not walk into. You arrive with a few clicks: you register, choose your language, and begin. No travel, no waiting lists, no sense that learning belongs to those who live near the right building at the right time.
This is the spirit behind UQU’s Global Electronic Muqra’ah, a digital initiative designed to help learners improve and correct Qur’an recitation through an academically grounded approach, delivered with the reach and practicality of today’s learning technology. The ambition is not to “digitize” the Qur’an, no one needs that, but to make the pathway to accurate recitation easier to access, more structured, and more dependable for anyone who seeks it.
The Muqra’ah was inaugurated under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Mishaal bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of the Makkah Region. Yet what matters most is what happened after the ceremony: the initiative was built as a coordinated university effort rather than a standalone project. It is supervised through the university’s academic leadership and supported by teams across UQU, particularly the College of Da’wah and Usul Al-Din and its Department of Qira’at, alongside the Deanship of Information Technology and e-Learning, and the university units responsible for institutional communication, admissions, and registration. In plain terms, it has the DNA of an institution: shared ownership, clear responsibility, and the kind of internal alignment that separates a lasting service from a one-season campaign.
The platform’s openness is not a slogan. It is designed for men and women, learners inside Saudi Arabia and beyond, Arabic speakers and those who are taking their first steps into Arabic. And because inclusion often fails at the most basic level, language, the Muqra’ah has been shaped to feel welcome from the first screen. It supports a set of widely used languages, including Arabic, English, French, Urdu, Malay, and Indonesian, so that the first barrier does not become the final one.
There is also a larger story here, one university around the world are still learning to tell well: the story of taking institutional capacity and pointing it outward. Umm Al-Qura University has invested heavily in digital learning infrastructure and developed platforms capable of supporting large numbers of participants. Like many institutions, it found that the COVID-19 period accelerated readiness and deepened experience with distance learning. The Muqra’ah takes those systems and turns them outward—so they are not only serving enrolled students but also supporting a wider community service locally and globally.
In its first year, the early indicators suggest that this outward turn is working. The Muqra’ah recorded 3,600 registered learners from 80 countries, a reach that would have been difficult to imagine for a traditional model built around geography and timetables. International participants made up 17% of total registrations, a meaningful share for a service anchored in the Kingdom yet designed to be open to the world. Participation across genders was similarly broad and nearly even: 1,800 women registered alongside 1,799 men, a balance that speaks to an audience that is not niche, not narrow, and not limited to one demographic.
To keep the learning experience structured and personal—rather than “massive” in a way that feels anonymous, the Muqra’ah has also been organised around delivery capacity. The report notes 36 open study sections, taught by 36 participating instructors, helping ensure that scale does not come at the expense of guidance and quality.
Behind the numbers is a set of choices that sound simple, but are rarely done consistently. Registration is intentionally light, basic details such as name, age, nationality/country, and preferred level, because bureaucracy is not a learning outcome. The service is offered free of charge, positioning it as a public service to the wider Islamic world rather than a product. Scheduling, too, is treated as a matter of fairness: a global platform cannot assume a single time zone, so operating windows are planned with international participation in mind. And because learners arrive with different starting points, the Muqra’ah avoids the one-size-fits all trap by offering clear learning levels, allowing each participant to begin where they belong and progress without confusion.
It is not difficult to see why the initiative fits naturally within Saudi Vision 2030, with its emphasis on global leadership while reinforcing the Kingdom’s Arab and Islamic depth. Saudi Arabia has long supported Qur’anic education and excellence in recitation, visible in major competitions and sustained initiatives across sectors. The Muqra’ah builds on that tradition but scales it through a modern model: academically grounded, digitally delivered, and available to learners worldwide.
Technology is often celebrated for speed, for making things faster, shorter, and immediate. The Muqra’ah offers a quieter, more human use of technology: helping people slowdown in the right way. To listen carefully. To correct gently. To recite with greater precision. From a home in Jakarta, a neighborhood in Paris, a town in West Africa, or a place far from any traditional institute, a learner can now connect to a guided service anchored in Makkah without fees, without borders, and without the old barriers of place and time.