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Credits & sources
Kalam builds on the work of reciters, translators, scholars, artists and open collections.
Updated 10 September 2026
Quran text and translations
Quran text is derived from the Tanzil Project through the Nuqayah Quran text collection. Tanzil Quran Text, copyright © 2007–2021 Tanzil Project; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, with the Tanzil terms of use, including the requirement to preserve the text. Check Tanzil’s updates for corrections.
The full reader and memorization selections use Saheeh International’s English translation and Fateh Muhammad Jalandhry’s Urdu translation, distributed through Tanzil. Translation rights remain with their respective owners. Some short dua translations are adapted to the selected passage; other practice translations and poem renderings are written for Kalam.
Recitation and practice audio
Quran recitation is by Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary, provided through EveryAyah. The full reader streams from that service. Practice and narration audio is generated with ElevenLabs and is labelled separately from recitation. Recorded Urdu letter names are reused from Zabaan.
The Eid takbeer recording is attributed to Sheikh Ali Ahmed Mullah via the Internet Archive upload. Its licence mark is supplied by the uploader; commercial permission has not been confirmed. Recitation and translation permissions remain under review before any paid offering.
Word meanings and grammar
Word glosses and transliterations come from Quran.com. Grammar and roots are derived from the Quranic Arabic Corpus, version 0.4, copyright © 2011 Kais Dukes, distributed under the GNU General Public License. Kalam simplifies grammatical labels for learners.
See the Quranic Arabic Corpus, source data and notices, the data mirror used by Kalam, and the GNU GPL version 3. The Corpus builds on Tanzil’s verified text. Check the original project for updates.
Persian classics
The longer readings from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and Saadi’s Gulistan and Bustan use public-domain Persian originals from Ganjoor. Each added reading links its exact source and identifies its extent. English renderings, romanization and word glosses are app-authored study aids. Persian speech uses the ElevenLabs Shahram voice with its Persian-capable model; it is AI-generated teaching audio.
Islamic History
The 18 chapters combine original educational narratives with museum collections, university research, manuscript archives, UNESCO heritage records and historical documents. Each chapter includes its own sources and further reading. Ten new illustrations explore regional architecture, books, crafts and daily life; they are artistic interpretations. Explore the history collection.
Muhammad Ali story
The original narrative draws on the Muhammad Ali Center timeline, its boxing history and account of Ali’s spiritual life, the Center’s Olympic history, the 1971 Supreme Court decision, and the United Nations biography. Dated archival photographs and an Olympic torch museum photograph accompany the story, with individual image credits.
Khutbahs
Khutbah videos belong to their speakers and channels. Kalam links to or embeds their original YouTube publications and does not host copies of their video or audio. Audio used to prepare a transcript is processed temporarily and deleted. Study notes use Whisper transcription and Gemini summaries and translations; these are AI-generated and may contain mistakes.
Art, architecture and writing
Museum images come from public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Wikimedia Commons. Architecture photographs carry their individual public-domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA notices. Photographer and collection credits appear with the images. Follow a source link for that item’s full terms.
Browse image credits and source links. Images may be resized or cropped for display. Other storybook and teaching artwork is AI-generated illustration. Kalam’s original retellings, explanations and poem translations are written for learners; individual traditions and source works are identified in their sections.
Urdu and Hindavi poetry
Fifteen readings bring together traditional songs associated with Amir Khusrau, Kabir, Dard, Mir, Mohsin Kakorvi, Hali and Iqbal. Original texts are drawn from Sufinama, Rekhta, Hindwi and the Urdu Mehfil library. Every reading links to its specific text. Kalam wrote the English translations, transliterations and word meanings; modern published translations and performance recordings were not copied. Long works are labelled selections, and traditional attributions are identified with the poems.
The collection uses the requested ElevenLabs voice for spoken learning recordings, including Persian and Arabic passages. Thirteen new illustrations were generated with OpenAI image generation. Read and listen to the collection.
Fonts
Fonts are bundled locally from Fontsource and Google Fonts under the SIL Open Font License. Their original copyright and licence notices are included here:
Review and corrections
Kalam’s app-authored teaching material is still awaiting comprehensive review by qualified teachers and scholars. No completed independent review is claimed. Please send corrections or rights enquiries to info@getkalam.net.