Assalamu alaikum, ya nesan!

Reading the Quran is just as important as reciting it, but many Saracen, including Ibn Serendib are incapable of this because we do not understand Arabic. Despite many religious and social leaders, including our national hero, the late M.C. Siddhi Lebbe strongly recommending learning the language of the Quran, Arabic literacy is extremely poor amongst our blessed community, and therefore referring a translation of the Quran often, will help us better understand our religion.


Quran.com is an amazing resource that provides an online version of the holy book, in addition to its translation in many languages, including English, French, Turkic and Indonesian. The English translations are especially rich as they offer works by many translators so you can choose one that you have faith in.

This website displays beautifully on your smartphone. The homepage consists a listing of all 114 chapters of the Quran, and touch selecting the chapters title will load the relevant chapter in Arabic along with the default translation provided by Sahih International. There are better translations than that from Sahih International available, and you can view them by following the instructions in the video below.


The audio recital feature that you can access by using the play button, next to each sentence is also helpful for those that want to listen. You can also follow along as the text is highlighted in sync with the audio, a helpful feature for those that wish to brush up on their pronunciation. The audio recordings can also be changed to one of many reciters, using the same way you used to change the translator. There is a handy search feature on the homepage as well that you can use to pull out relevant ayahs based on the keywords you type in. At the time of writing this article, this feature does not work on mobile phones, but works excellently on the desktop browser.

Technology has bought us closer to our religion by making it easy and convenient to access religious texts. How envious our fore fathers will be of such conveniences, as acquiring a translation in those days was an investment, and even then, you may only purchase a single authors work. Here, every major translator is accessible, easily and directly at no charge. Therefore, Ibn Serendib invites you to give this website a try, and read the translation of the Quran in a language you understand, and he can guarantee you that it’s a very interesting read.

May Allah make our dheen easy for us!

Assalamu Alaikum Ya Nesan!

Sarandib (alternatively Serendib) is the old Arabic / Persian term for the blessed land of the Saracen. Its fame stretches back to antiquity, as a place of unmatched beauty, gem laden riches and hospitable people. Its image of intrigue has been immortalized in the Persian language as the exotic land visited by Sinbad in his sixth voyage. And today it lends its name not just to an Island South of India, but also to a place far away, of equal intrigue.

Sarandib Planitia, is the name given to a relatively un-cratered terrain in Enceladus, one of the 53 moons that orbit the planet Saturn, approximately 1.2 billion kilometers from our blessed island.

Locations on Enseladus - Sarandib Planitia is marked in red

Enceladus is Saturn’s sixth largest moon. It was discovered in modern times, by William Herschel on the 28th of August in the year 1789, and named after the giant Enceladus, who appears in Greek mythology as one of the Titans. The name was chosen by Herschel’s son, John Herschel, who proposed this name, because Saturn in Greek was known as Cronos, who was the King of the Titans, and therefore he saw it fit to name its moons after the Titans themselves. The name “Sarandib Plantia” was selected by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), who used names of places and characters from the English translation of “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights” an Old Persian story book, which details the story of Sinbad’s visit to our blessed island.

View of Sarandib Planitia

So what kind of place is Sarandib Planitia? Well, it’s a relatively pristine part of Enceladus, where craters are minimal. It is located at 4.4° North Latitude, 298.0° West Longitude and is approximately 200 kilometers across. Compare this to our island which is 240 kilometers across. It is considered the youngest terrain on Enceladus, estimated to be less than a few hundred million years old. Its surface is primarily covered in ice, with temperatures at noon reaching a staggeringly low -198 degrees Celsius. Other than this, it is rather featureless, a stark contrast to the hot, humid and feature rich island that it is named after. None the less, Ibn Serendib is sure it maybe just as beautiful.

How proud should we be, as the name of our blessed homeland, precedes itself to the far corners of our solar system. This is indeed a great honor, Alhamdulillah!

May Allah bless our homeland and its people!