ٱشْرَحْ

The teaching leads. Then, why it works.

Ishrah is a reading app of short lessons. Each one starts from a verse, a hadith, a prophet’s story or a dua. Then it brings in what psychologists, neuroscientists and philosophers have found about the same thing, by name.

Ishrah is the first word of Musa’s dua, “open up my chest” (Qur’an 20:25). In everyday Arabic it also means “explain”.

A lesson, one page at a time

وَيَضِيقُ صَدْرِى
وَلَا يَنطَلِقُ لِسَانِى
فَأَرْسِلْ إِلَىٰ هَـٰرُونَ

He said: “My Lord, I fear they will reject me. My chest tightens and my tongue will not flow, so send for Harun.” (Qur’an 26:12–13)

Read it again. A prophet is describing a tight chest and words that will not come.

Fear did not make him less of a believer. He took it to the One who could do something about it.

قَالَ رَبِّ ٱشْرَحْ لِى صَدْرِى
وَيَسِّرْ لِىٓ أَمْرِى
وَٱحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِى
يَفْقَهُوا۟ قَوْلِى

So he asked. “My Lord, open up my chest for me, ease my task for me, and untie the knot from my tongue, so they may understand my words.” (Qur’an 20:25–28)

He named exactly what was wrong: chest, task, tongue.

At UCLA, Matthew Lieberman’s team showed people frightened and angry faces. When they put a name to the feeling, the amygdala grew quieter. (2007)

The next time your chest tightens before you have to speak, do what he did.

Name it.
Ask.
Take someone with you.

The One who heard Musa عليه السلام hears you.

Three of the eight pages of “Even Musa was afraid”.

What the marks mean

Blue is for quoted words: a verse, a hadith, a philosopher’s line.
A warm colour is for the line to keep.
Matching colours tie an Arabic word to its English word, as on the pages above.
A ring goes round a term from the research.
Bold is the name of a scholar, a thinker or a researcher.

How a lesson is made

The source comes first. Every lesson starts from the Qur’an or the Sunnah.
The Arabic is exact. Verses are the Tanzil Uthmani text, letter for letter. Hadith are given only when graded sound, with their collection and number.
The research is named. A study appears with its year, its place and who took part, and the page says no more than it found.
You can check it. Every lesson ends with its sources.

Start from what you are carrying

Fear
Grief
Anger
Loneliness
Doubt
Hardship
Regret
Restlessness
Disappointment
Burnout
Envy
Overwhelm
Shaken
Consistency
Shame
Worry
Stress
Uncertainty
Resentment
Scarcity
Purpose
Wanting
Approval
Despair
Illness
Temptation
Drifting

Right now

Choose what you are carrying and see the three things to do, and the dua to say.

Duas you’ve met

The duas from the lessons you finish gather on a shelf, each with the story it comes from.

Share a page

Any page can be sent to someone as a picture.

Yours alone

No account. No tracking. What you read and what you keep stay on your phone.