Week 7: Review of Sabr, the Muslim Meditation App
Why it gets ★★★★☆, and what it would need for the full 5 stars
Salaam everyone!
Today, we’re going to take a look at a fantastic app that I’ve been trying for the past week: Sabr, an app that helps Muslims meditate and relax.
I came across Sabr when I learned about traditional Muslim alternatives to meditation, like muraqabah, which I’ve tried to bring into my own life, through this app. My experience with Sabr has been overall positive. Here is what I loved about the app and why I decided to give it 4 out of 5 stars:
1) Beautiful design: Sabr is full of natural images and sounds that draw you into the app. It’s easy to navigate between the three main sections of the app: meditation (guided meditations on different topics — more on that later), vocals (Quranic recitation, vocals-only songs, and sounds to help you relax — I didn’t use this much as I already have a dedicated Quran app), and courses (basically audiobooks — also covered below).
2) Meditations on different topics: The highlight of the Sabr app are short meditations on topics like gratitude. In a relaxing voice, speaker guides you through breathing exercises, while reminding you of these Islamic concepts. These are beautifully produced audio pieces, with sounds of nature in the background. When you close your eyes and follow the speaker, the meditation transports your state of mind.
3) Courses: this is something I haven’t seen in any other meditation app, and I love it! You can listen to scholars and teachers give audio-only courses on various topics, like “Miracles” or “Mastering Patience.” My favorite so far is Hosai Mojaddidi’s “Purification of the Heart” (based on Hamza Yusuf’s book).
So why not give it the 5/5 stars? Based on my experience trying other meditation apps, like Headspace, there are a few things that I felt could be improved in Sabr: the first is guidance. When you open the app, you are presented with a lot of options, but not much guidance on where to start. You have to navigate the app on your own — I personally would have preferred a few tutorial screens or a suggestion of how you should use the app over the course of a week.
Also, unlike some other apps, there aren’t mechanisms that track your progress or consistency from day-to-day, which makes it less sticky. Adding notifications or badges would help remind users like me meditate more regularly. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Sabr is focused on relaxation and de-stressing — it’s not meant as a general purpose mental health or therapy app.
But if you would generally like to reduce the stress and cultivate a more positive attitude in your life, I think it’s a great app and strongly encourage you to try it!